ASA: Children’s exposure to gambling ads reaches 12-year low

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed children were exposed to just under one gambling ad for every five seen by adults in the UK during 2019. In its latest report, the ASA confirmed children’s exposure to TV gambling ads when compared to adults’ stood at 17.2% in 2019, while gambling ads made up just over 2% of ads seen by children over the last 12 months.

On average, children saw 2.7 gambling ads on TV per week in 2009, with this figure falling to 2.5 ads a week in 2019. This represents a significant decline from 2013’s peak, when children saw an average of 4.4 gambling ads per week. The ASA notes that 2008 was the first full year in which all gambling products and services could be legally advertised on TV. In that year, children aged 4-15 saw 2.2 gambling ads on TV per week on average, totalling approximately 48 seconds in length. Since 2011, ads for bingo, lottery and scratchcards have continued to make up the majority of gambling ads seen by children on TV. This is followed by ads for casinos, and then sports betting. Children’s exposure to TV advertising in general has halved on average from a peak of 229.3 ads per week in 2013 to just 115.9 in 2019. “While the rate of decline in children’s exposure to gambling ads on TV is marginally lower than the rate of decrease in exposure to all TV ads, children’s exposure to gambling ads has remained at a lower level since the 2013 peak,” the ASA said. Between 2011 and 2019, excluding the 2013 peak, children saw on average one TV ad for bingo and one TV ad for lottery and scratchcards each week.