Charity GambleAware wants the next UK government to ban all gambling marketing at sporting events. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Major public support

UK charity GambleAware wants the country’s next government to ban all gambling marketing at sporting events, citing major support from the public.

removing all betting sponsorships from sports apparel

According to The Guardian, the gambling charity stated that two-thirds of the UK public believes there are “too many betting adverts.” If GambleAware gets its way, it would mean removing all betting sponsorships from sports apparel and merchandise, including inside stadiums.

GambleAware’s CEO Zoe Osmond cited results of a survey conducted amid heavy marketing for the Euro 2024 soccer tournament currently underway in Germany. Osmond stated 40% of people with a gambling problem said betting ads caused them to spend money and time on gambling.

“The data starts to make you feel that the pushback from the last government, that there is no causation, needs to be re-examined,” Osmond said.

Blanket bans

The government’s white paper on gambling regulation released in 2023 introduced proposals for stricter regulation such as £5 ($6.32) limits on digital slot machine play. The new proposals, however, hardly looked at gambling advertising.

The UK’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Gambling and Civil Society, the Tory MP Stuart Andrew, has previously stated his office did not act on advertising because of lack of evidence that gambling marketing causes harm.

Osmond said that gambling advertising has been overlooked, and that even if PM Rishi Sunak hadn’t called a shock election on July 4, GambleAware would still “be calling on government to do this.”

wants warnings on gambling products similar to those on cigarette packs

The CEO also referenced the high volume of gambling ads on UK radio during the school run, and wants the next government to implement change, including “a pre-watershed ban on all broadcast gambling ads on TV, video on demand and radio.” GambleAware also wants warnings on gambling products similar to those on cigarette packs.

While soccer franchises in the English Premier League have voluntarily agreed to axe gambling patches from front-of-jersey sponsorship from 2026, teams in all the lower leagues will, for now, remain unaffected.  

The flip side

GambleAware’s call for the elimination of gambling marketing at all sporting events wouldn’t just affect soccer. The UK gambling industry’s lobbying body, the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC), pointed out the ramifications.

“The regulated betting and gaming industry provides some of the country’s most popular sports with vital funding,” a BGC spokesperson stated, while referencing the £40m per annum that goes to soccer franchises across all leagues.  

The spokesperson also sang from the gambling minister’s hymn sheet, citing the government’s stance that research did not prove a causal link between exposure to gambling ads and problem gambling.