Gambling advertising rules: A bumpy ride for operators?
Martin Lycka, director of regulatory affairs at GVC, looks at the challenges of gambling advertising and how GVC is navigating the increasingly choppy regulatory waters
Not even Ben Stokes’ mesmerising innings in the third Ashes test this summer may have had the power to prevent you from noticing that the intervening TV breaks were no longer graced with Ray Winstone’s stupefyingly deep voice or James Buckley’s Boostman antics.
The UK TV pre-watershed, whistle-to-whistle advertising ban kicked into effect on 1 August 2019. The ban is a result of last year’s agreement by the five biggest UK bookmakers to cut down on gambling adverts shown during live televised sport events.
GVC has been at the forefront of negotiating and implementing the major changes to the UK gambling advertising culture – we have not only led the charge on designing the pre-watershed ban but also introduced a plethora of other measures within the framework of our Changing for the Bettor responsible gambling strategy in a bid to protect our customers from potential gambling-related harm.
No more shirt sponsorships with UK-based teams; no more perimeter board advertising at UK football grounds. We have committed to a further significant increase in our spend on gambling treatment centres and education; with one of the centrepieces of the education programme being our research collaboration with the Division on Addiction of the Harvard Medical School.
To paraphrase Bob Dylan, it follows from the above that, together with several of our peers, we “came, heeded the call, didn’t stand in the doorway, didn’t block up the hall” for clearly “times they were a-changing”. As a global business, we closely follow the increasingly complex patchwork of developments in the regulation of gambling advertising across the jurisdictions in which we are licensed.
Advertising comes under the spotlight
It’s instructive to look at a few specific examples to see the overall direction of travel. Italy has notably introduced a blanket ban on gambling-related advertising and sponsorship, while advertising offered under Swedish gambling licences is expected to be “moderate”. In Spain, the government is rumoured to be contemplating the introduction of gambling advertising rules that are akin to tobacco advertising rules. Even the nascent US sports betting market has been exposed to the fallout from games-related marketing campaigns of years gone by.
The trend is without a shadow of a doubt skewed towards further regulation of this space, potentially including additional restrictions. Far from me to argue that this trend is unwelcome. The proverbial call mentioned above needs to be heeded at regular intervals and action taken accordingly, just like the UK industry has in the very recent past. However, I am of the view that to be effective any gambling advertising regulation needs to follow three key principles:
– Total bans are counterproductive – balanced regulation of gambling advertising helps customers differentiate between regulated and unregulated offers; it is also one of the most efficient carriers of responsible gambling messages
– Every jurisdiction needs to be addressed on its own merits, taking into account the maturity of the market. What may work in a mature market such as the UK will not necessarily be the best model in a newly regulated market, where a more permissive approach can be used to encourage consumers towards licensed operators, with a subsequent ramping up of tighter – but not too invasive – advertising rules overtime
– The industry should be utilised by governments and authorities to help in the initial design of regulation or, at the very least, consulted with, before its implementation. This approach has two advantages: a) it contributes towards the clarity of interpretation of the applicable rules and b) it gives the industry an opportunity to share with the authorities best practices that have proven to be efficient in other jurisdictions.
Through adopting such a pragmatic approach and learning from the best practices adopted elsewhere, regulators can strike a balance which encourages responsible operators to thrive, while ensuring consumers are safeguarded.
Martin Lycka, solicitor, is director of regulatory affairs at GVC Holdings. He has been an in-house legal and regulatory counsel to global online gambling operators for over nine years. Prior to working with GVC, Lycka worked with inter alia Salans Europe LLP and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.