By David Owen
November 28 – The UK has witnessed an explosion of TV gambling adverts since a new law entered into force six years ago, new research has shown. In statistics that will come as little surprise to regular viewers of sport on British commercial television, the research found that the total number of gambling TV advertising spots rose from 152,000 in 2006, prior to the new law, to 537,000 in 2008 and 1.39 million in 2012.
Published by Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, the research said that gambling accounted for 0.7% of all advertising spots across commercial television in 2006, rising to 1.7% in 2008 and 4.1% in 2012.
Not surprisingly, adults’ exposure to gambling advertising has also increased markedly over the period covered by the research, with the number of ‘impacts’ – the number of times an advert was seen by viewers – multiplying almost four-fold between 2006 and 2012, from 8 billion to 30.9 billion.
Among different categories of gambling advertising, bingo accounted for the most ads in 2012, with 532,000 – that’s more than 1,450 a day – compared with 411,000 for online casino and poker services, 355,000 for lotteries and scratch cards and 91,000 for sports betting.
Prior to the new law, which came into force on 1 September 2007, the only gambling advertising permitted on TV was for football pools, bingo premises and the National Lottery.
The research was carried out for Ofcom by Zinc Research & Analytics. It was based on analysis of Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) viewing data.
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