UK Gambling Advertising on the Rise

Research published by the UK television regulator Ofcom has found that gambling advertising on television has increased massively since the market was liberalised six years ago.

According to the research, which was based on analysis of BARB viewing data, in 2006 there was a total of 152,000 gambling advert spots on television, by 2008 it had more than doubled to 537,000 and in 2012 it reached 1.39 million.

The majority of the gambling adverts shown in 2012 were bingo related taking up 532,000 spots. Adverts for online casinos and poker rooms came next with 411,000, there were 355,000 adverts for lotteries and scratch cards and 91,000 sports betting adverts. Gambling accounted for 4.1% of all television advertising in 2012.

The research also found that adults’ exposure to gambling advertising is steadily on the rise. In 2012 adverts were seen 30.9 billion times by viewers, this accounted for 3.2% of all adverts seen by adult viewers. In 2006 the number was just 8 billion; this was before the Gambling Act removed the rules which restricted gambling adverts to football pools, bingo halls and the National Lottery.