The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has urged social media behemoths to collaborate with the betting and gaming sector to limit young people’s and problem gamblers’ exposure to marketing initiatives. Despite the BGC’s efforts to impose new standards for online advertising, their progress is hampered by the acts of social media platforms.
The BGC’s Chief Executive, Michael Dugher, has written to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer MP, encouraging her to increase pressure on social media sites as part of the government’s initiative to address problem gambling, particularly among people under the age of 25. Mrs Frazer’s recently released Gambling White Paper contained proposed measures aimed at people under the age of 25.
Mr. Dugher mentions a previous BGC initiative that allowed the public to opt out of receiving betting and gaming adverts on social media platforms in his reply. BGC members, on the other hand, believe that more collaboration is needed to execute further measures, notably for people who have registered with the industry self-exclusion tool, GAMSTOP.
The industry wants to set up a “marketing suppression scheme” to prevent direct promotion of betting and gaming products to the 300,000 people who have registered with GAMSTOP through social media channels.
In his letter to Mrs Frazer, Mr Dugher states, “This is impossible to achieve without the cooperation of the social media platforms themselves. This is a sensible solution, which BGC members are keen on implementing, but we cannot do so without the cooperation of social media platforms. I would urge you to help on this matter by calling on social media platforms to finally cooperate with the BGC and make the relevant functionality available, so we can help protect the most vulnerable.”
Furthermore, the BGC demands that social media companies limit the frequency with which adverts targeting specific age groups are displayed. However, this can only be accomplished with the platforms’ collaboration.
Members of the BGC have already made major steps to ensure that only people of legal gambling age are exposed to online marketing for regulated betting and gaming products. Currently, all social media advertisements by BGC members must target people above the age of 25, unless platforms can demonstrate their ability to reliably target people over the age of 18.
To further promote responsible advertising, the BGC implemented a new code of conduct that prohibits football clubs from promoting direct promotion related betting odds and sites on their popular social media profiles.
In the United Kingdom, the regulated betting and gaming business supports 110,000 jobs, generates £4.2 billion in tax income, and contributes £7.1 billion to the economy.
The latest Gambling Commission numbers, which show a problem gambling rate of 0.3% among adults in the country, are encouraging, with around 22.5 million adults in the UK wagering each month.
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