Evidence from social science research is informing how advertising regulations can do more to protect children from the harmful effects of gambling advertising on social media.
Summary
Social science research, led by Professor Agnes Nairn and Dr Raffaello Rossi at the University of Bristol, exploring how content marketing on social media which appears harmless, can make gambling more appealing to children, has led to advertising regulation changes to help improve protection for children and young people in this space.
Informing advertising regulations to protect children from gambling advertising
“We’ve had really good dialogues with the Advertising Standards Authority. As a result, they have changed the regulation that stipulates that gambling adverts should not be “of particular appeal” to children (i.e. more appealing to children than adults) to “of strong appeal”. This is a breakthrough because under the previous regulation, an advert could be extremely appealing to children (for example something related to premier league football) yet not prohibited just because if was equally appealing to adults.”
Professor Agnes Nairns (University of Bristol website)
The challenge
There are increasing concerns about the impact of gambling on children and young people, with the most recent figures from the Gambling Commission and Ipsos stating that three in five 11-17-year-olds have some experience of gambling.
Despite there being strict regulations for online gambling, the Commission has identified a trend towards a rise in unregulated gambling and young people being more likely to be exposed to gambling-related advertisements online through social media and apps. This is particularly true for Esports, a type of competitive multiplayer video game, which is developing faster than regulation can keep pace, raising further concerns of more children and young people being put at risk of experiencing gambling harms.
The research
Professor Agnes Nairn and Dr Raffaello Rossi, based at the University of Bristol, have been investigating the effects advertising, specifically social media gambling ads, has on children and young people. Their initial research in 2019 working with Ipsos MORI and Demos and using data from over 880,000 UK gambling ads in combination with data from 1 million users on X (formerly Twitter), identified that 41,000 UK children were following gambling accounts on the platform and that 71% of gambling ads did not fully comply with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulations. In addition, they found that the big UK gambling brands post approximately 29,000 ads per year and that two thirds of the engagement with these were made by young people under 24. According to their research, Esports and their associated adverts provided a stronger appeal for children than more traditional gambling forms (e.g. football better). Furthermore, of the gambling adverts provided by Esports accounts on the platform only 0.1% were found to contain any warning about the minimum age for gambling, responsible gambling, or terms and conditions.
Following this initial study on the ecosystem of gambling ads on Twitter, further research was conducted in 2021 and 2024 to understand whether gambling advertising was more appealing to children and young people than to adults. The study, which involved 650 participants aged between 11 and 78, found that gambling advertising on the platform, was significantly more appealing to younger age groups, with Esports ads found to be especially appealing to those aged under 25. This research also found that content marketing, a marketing approach which shares content to build an audience to advertise to, is more challenging to identify at any age compared to traditional adverts, but particularly for children and young people.
“The overwhelming strong appeal of gambling advertising on social media to children is of huge concern, as the earlier people start gambling the more likely it will become habitual and problematic.”
Dr Raffaello Rossi (University of Bristol website)
The impact
As a result of their research, Nairn and Rossi identified a number of recommendations for industry, advertisers, technology companies and regulators, including more explicit references to safe gambling and age restrictions in adverts, widening education initiatives for young people and their parents, gambling content marketing to be regulated rigorously, and a ban on Esports gambling advertising.
Nairn and Rossi’s research has informed debate in the House of Lords and they have been invited to give evidence to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), the National Digital Ethics Expert Group by the Scottish Government, and the House of Lords’ Peers for Gambling Reform.
In addition, their research has led to three changes in advertising regulations. These include:
- updated and clearer regulations to improve the protection of children following a consultation by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA)
- the publication of an advice notice clarifying regulations for Esports betting advertising
- ASA accepted that all content marketing, including for that outside of gambling, was within their remit addressing an important loophole and marking a change for how all social media ads are regulated.