Liaison Committee’s report argues that a comprehensive ban represents the most effective policy option to reduce gambling harms

A new report from the House of Lords Liaison Committee has called for a comprehensive ban on gambling advertising across Great Britain.

Following up the July 2020 report of the Gambling Industry Committee, which recommended a public health approach to tackling gambling-related harms, the Liaison Committee’s report argues that a comprehensive ban on gambling advertising represents the most effective policy option to meaningfully advance the Government’s aim of reducing gambling harms.

The report of the cross-party committee found that gambling harm remains a major public health issue and claimed that between 1 and 1.5 million adults in Great Britain gamble in such a way as may be described as problem gambling. 

“Following up on the work of previous committees is a vital part of effective scrutiny and holding governments to account,” said Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, senior deputy speaker and chair of the House of Lords Liaison Committee. “Six years have elapsed since the Gambling Industry Committee published its important report on the social and economic impact of the gambling industry. 

“The time was right to reassess this crucial policy area, focusing on the topic of gambling advertising where the former committee’s strong recommendations have been largely unaddressed and where substantial developments in the gambling advertising landscape since 2020 have demanded a re-evaluation of the policy options.”

Prior to the major liberalisation of gambling advertising introduced by the Gambling Act 2005, only bingo, football pools, the National Lottery, and other permitted lotteries were allowed to advertise on television and radio. 

The Committee said that while several other jurisdictions have moved ahead with significant advertising restrictions to tackle gambling harm, Great Britain is now a “comparative outlier”.

The Committee claimed that there is considerable evidence that voluntary measures have not been effective in decreasing overall exposure to gambling advertising in sport.

“We are not confident that the Premier League’s front of shirt ban represents a sufficiently significant step towards reducing exposure and we are particularly concerned by evidence of the movement of sponsorship to other formats, such as training kits,” said the Committee.

“The Government should implement the former Select Committee’s recommendation that gambling operators should no longer be allowed to advertise on the shirts of sports teams or any other part of their kit and that there should be no gambling advertising in or near any sports grounds or sports venues, including sports programmes.

“In addition to this, we recommend that this prohibition be extended to training kits to reduce the clear risk of displacement to alternative formats. The Government should carefully consider ways to prevent other forms of circumvention, such as through alibi branding.”

The report also recognises that stronger action is needed to tackle unregulated gambling, although the Committee “remains unconvinced by claims that restrictions on advertising by licensed operators will lead to displacement of customers to the illegal market”. 

The Committee said that concerns over the illegal market must therefore not be a barrier to addressing the “clear harms” generated by the licensed sector.

“Up to a million and a half people in Britain experience problem gambling and the serious consequences this has on them, their families and the wider community,” said Lord Foster of Bath, a member of the former committee and acting former chair. “A ban on most gambling advertising would reduce gambling and therefore reduce problem gambling and the serious harm it causes. We are clear that this would shrink, rather than grow, the gambling sector and that this would make a positive difference to millions of people across the country.

“There are clear health and economic benefits to reducing participation in gambling, with a recent study by the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research estimating that a 10 per cent reduction in spending on gambling could lead to an increase in GVA [gross value added] of £1.25 billion and create over 22,000 jobs.”

The Committee said that in the absence of a comprehensive ban on gambling advertising, or as part of a transition period, gambling advertising should be regulated by a statutory regulator, possessing a range of robust enforcement powers and the ability to restrict particular advertising channels and classes of advertising. 

It said that the Gambling Commission appears to be the most suitable body to perform this function, and should therefore be allocated the necessary resources for this task and should recruit staff with relevant expertise.

“The regulator must have a sufficiently wide remit and enforcement powers to address proactively the challenges posed by ever-changing online gambling advertising,” said the Committee in its recommendations. “In formulating a public health approach to gambling advertising, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) should consult the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

“The Government should fundamentally re-evaluate its approach to gambling advertising. Recognising the significance of the public health issue posed by gambling harms, the lack of evidence to suggest that gambling advertising is safe, and the strong evidence to suggest a link between gambling advertising, participation, and harm, the Government should adopt a more precautionary model. This should be guided by the philosophy that underpinned the policy framework prior to the Gambling Act 2005: that gambling should be tolerated but not promoted.”

The Committee also believes that the Government should focus on developing more targeted policies which aim to reduce particular forms of gambling advertising which especially exacerbate harm. This would allow detailed and robust evaluation of the impact of specific policies, allowing for evaluation of impact on gambling harms and any potential impact on the illegal market.

Other recommendations include prohibiting the promotion of licensed gambling operators by influencers and content creators, and establishing and administering a new licensing regime for affiliates.

Conversely, the Committee wants on-course advertising for betting on horseracing and greyhound racing to be exempt from the ban. 

It also recommended that the Government assess the level of risk posed by lottery advertising in determining whether it should be subject to the proposed comprehensive ban.

Link to the full Gambling Harm – Time for Action report here (173 pages)