The debate surrounding gambling advertisement, and whether it ought to be restricted has been a hot-button topic for the public, lawmakers, industry stakeholders, and responsible gambling advocates. The subject has been raised as part of the British government’s latest and ongoing attempt to re-regulate the market, and it has been discussed in Australia and at the federal level in the United States.

In the Netherlands, the Netherlands Gambling Authority has introduced and enforced very strict advertising rules, and Italy has done away with gambling advertisements altogether. In New Jersey, residents have revealed themselves to be overwhelmingly in support of reducing gambling advertisements.

The evidence suggests that there is strong public backing for lessening and limiting the reach of gambling advertisements. So why are certain major jurisdictions failing to act? Is reducing the intensity of gambling advertising truly in the interest of consumers, or is it another way to empower the black market, which is not restrained by such guardrails?

Limiting gambling advertisement – a question of when, not if

Public opinion has not been kind to the so-called "sin industries." Whether it is tobacco, oil, or gambling, people have been inclined to side with more onerous regulation at the expense of these perceived evildoers. Yet, an example of this emotional response backfiring has been recently seen in Australia.

New South Wales promised to reduce the number of slot machines across the state’s licensed venues but had to backtrack on those plans, citing the high costs of implementing its proposal. The money, lawmakers said tersely, would be better spent on directly tackling gambling-related harm. Despite such setbacks, however, public opinion has remained firmly opposed to gambling advertising.

According to a Survation poll commissioned by CEGA in October 2024, 51% of respondents in the United Kingdom were in favor of a complete ban on gambling advertisements, a similar course of action pursued by the Italian government. While this is a slim majority, the numbers rise when people are asked if U-18s should be exposed to gambling advertisements of any sort. 78% of respondents said they must not.

"Banning gambling advertising would be popular, would improve the nation’s health, and would grow the economy – money spent on almost anything else would be more economically productive and would reduce the sizable human and societal costs of gambling," CEGA director Will Prochaska argued.

Research by the Royal Society for Public Health showed that nearly two-thirds (63%) of adults and more than half (53%) of young people back a blanket ban on gambling product advertisements. Only 14% oppose such a ban.

In summation, public opinion is clearly moving against gambling advertisements, and rules are already beginning to tighten around gambling ads. The UK Gambling Commission has recently issued a new set of rules concerning bonuses and promotions, which will change the rollover requirements for such offers, as well as prohibit cross-platform advertising at the end of 2025.

Although a lot of the data used in this analysis draws on public opinion in the United Kingdom, opposition to gambling advertisements is almost universal across the globe, including in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere.

What does the Dutch experience tell us?

In March, Dutch Minister for Legal Protection, who is tasked with overseeing gambling, Teun Struycken, spoke in the House of Representatives and said that he was discussing the possibility of introducing stricter advertising rules.

The Netherlands has a very strict gambling advertisement policy. For one, licensed operators may not use "role model" figures, such as popular personalities and sportspeople, to participate in their ads. Nor can they target people under the age of 24 or send them any form of marketing materials. Struycken similarly spoke about introducing a "clearer advertising ban" that would involve some exceptions, but still make it hard to sidestep ad rules, thus achieving the desired level of consumer protection.

Perhaps notably, Struycken wants to make it so that the Netherlands Gambling Authority can also act in instances where it believes the market’s rules have been flouted. However, even the regulator is reluctant to see a blanket ban introduced on gambling ads, as the regulated market would most likely lose momentum to the black market.

As of right now, a new report by the Netherlands Gambling Authority suggests that 50% of all gambling spending in the country goes directly to unlicensed entities, and that channelization dropped to 91% from 95% following the introduction of stricter rules on October 1, 2024.

Are gambling ads truly harmful to players’ well-being?

While opposition to gambling advertisement is well-documented, the question we should be asking is: Are gambling ads truly harmful? The evidence doesn’t paint a definitive picture, but it strongly suggests a link.

In "The Relationship Between Gambling Advertising and Gambling Attitudes, Intentions, and Behaviours: A Critical and Meta-Analytic Review" by a host of academics, including Ayoub Bouguettaya, Dermot Lynott, Adrian Carter, Oulmann Zerhouni, Silke Meyer, et al., the evidence is mixed, and the study’s authors are on the cautious side. There is a positive association between exposure to gambling advertising and gambling-related attitudes, intentions, and behavior.

The research drew on well-established facts about addictive products and argued that greater exposure to advertising of such products was associated with positive attitudes, use initiation, and more problematic use. This particular body of work was important for another reason as well: it highlighted the lack of sufficient research specifically examining gambling advertising, leaving policymakers, advocates, and researchers in the dark and impeding policies designed to address gambling-related harm. The research authors noted:

"In the absence of effective government regulation, gambling advertising is likely to increase and be more influential, leading to greater societal harm."

However, the research also took a look at multiple other studies of gambling advertising and pointed out one glaring shortfall: there is no robust standard for evaluating gambling advertising, and independent studies into the subject matter compromise the quality of said studies.

The bottom line from the study: the authors outline a positive association between gambling advertising and gambling-related harm, what some gambling hawks have called "normalization" of gambling.

But the study is also not conclusive – it does not directly find a causal relationship. Notably, though, the study urges a more unified and better scientific approach to understanding how gambling advertising affects consumers and the harm it potentially brings.

Are restrictions on gambling going to get tighter?

Yes, there is absolutely no doubt that regulators will act in a more determined way against the sector. From limiting sports partnerships to restricting companies’ ability to use "role models" or target people under a certain age – whether this is 24 or another age threshold – changes are coming across Europe.

Spain has similarly introduced a prohibition on the use of sportspeople, celebrities, and influencers for gambling advertising, and the same rules apply in Belgium. Limiting gambling ads’ visibility is an ongoing debate with an unclear finale.

In Italy, the Decreto Dignità has been in force since 2019, but the country may now be finally moving to lift its betting sponsorship ban. Despite this sinuous and meandering path that gambling and regulation follows, there is a sustained public opinion push toward limiting it.

Regulators and policymakers have mostly been sympathetic to the call for action by people who have suffered because of gambling, but the status quo is a mesh of uncertainties that each individual jurisdiction has helped flesh out. Do blanket bans work? Do we have the research to make educated decisions about how to best manage gambling ads? These are still open-ended questions.

Wrapping up - we have identified the issue, but the action will be slow

While few would be satisfied with the status quo, and even accuse regulators of complacency, the fact may be that we have never been closer to understanding how gambling ads work and impact vulnerable people, and what we can do to prevent this from happening in the first place Unfortunately, no one-size-fits-all solution is on the cards, but the fact that we can now acknowledge that openly and call for directed research is already a win in itself. In the meantime, don't count on gambling ads disappearing overnight.

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