According to the ASA’s numbers, the amount of gambling ads viewed by children on TV fell to 3.2 per week in 2018, from a 4.4 high in 2013, which makes up 2% of all the TV ads children saw last year.
However, it’s an increase on the 2.2 rate recorded in 2008, which was the first full year gaming and betting adverts were allowed on TV in the UK.
Most of the gambling TV adverts seen by children since 2011 are for bingo, lotteries and scratchcards, while on average children saw one ad for every five seen by adults in 2018.
ASA Chief Executive Guy Parker said: “We’ve policed the rules online through our proactive monitoring work, which uses technology to find out which ads children are seeing, followed by swift action against online advertisers who have broken the rules.”
This year has seen a clampdown on the way sports betting is advertised to children, and on TV in general, with an industry-wide voluntary ‘whistle-to-whistle’ advertising ban coming into force in August.
The ban means no gambling adverts can be shown during live sport – excluding horse and greyhound racing – before the 9pm watershed, lasting from five minutes before the start of a match and ending five minutes after.
Regulations also came into force in April, tightening betting adverts on multiple platforms, including any material appearing in products popular with children prohibited.
