Almost all affected others said advertising was a problem. Often, they did not initially notice how prevalent gambling advertising was. It was only once their partner or family member told them, or they found out about their gambling that they noticed how gambling advertising was everywhere. They gave examples of the many places that they saw gambling advertising and how difficult it was to get away from it. They said they were not surprised that people could become addicted to gambling because of how much advertising there is. They said if people want to gamble, they can go and find it and there is no need to have it relentlessly promoted everywhere.
Making gambling seem harmless and everyday
Affected others discussed how they were surrounded by advertisements encouraging people to gamble. They said gambling advertising is now everywhere. It is in sports, daytime and prime time television and radio, online and on social media, on the high street, and more. People said the way gambling is shown in advertisements made the people around them think that gambling is harmless fun and an easy way to get money, and that it will fix all their problems. Some affected others said this was particularly harmful as the people they loved were experiencing stressful life challenges or were in situations where they were financially struggling.
New factors were increasing the pressures on him day-to-day, which meant his ability to handle his day-to-day pressures were getting greater. And as I said, I think as a result of that, he saw the opportunity or he saw a night on I think it was Ant and Dec he was watching with the family, and I think he saw an advert come up around 365 with Ray Winstone, if I remember rightly, saying it can be fun. He started and he became addicted to the products.
He would spend a lot of time out with his wife going out for meals. He was living above his means, I think very simply. And I think it got to a point where he then had seen an advert on TV that was really saying, you know, it could be fun to gamble, and I think he was low.
I do know from what [partner] has said that a lot of it is you feel like you need to fix everything, and that gambling will fix everything. And I think that sort of perspective comes a lot from the adverts, like what would it be like to be a millionaire on the EuroMillions? And the adverts are all glamorous and so wonderful and it’s in your face 24/7.
If you listen to talkSPORT, it is sponsored by, I think, Bet365. Every 10 minutes, there’s a, “Oh, and the odds on the next goal being scored to 10 to 1.” Literally, in an hour program, you will have 10 gambling adverts. We need to stop bombarding people with this message that gambling is good, and gambling will lead to a six-bedroom mansion with a swimming pool in the back garden.
Affected others talk about how people are hounded by gambling advertisements. They say it is all over the television, radio, on social media, at sports stadiums and outside of high street bookmakers. They say there is no escaping it. This can be worrying for people as they fear that gambling advertisements could trigger gambling again.
You can’t do anything else. Because it’s so in your face, there isn’t really an escape. I think you have to be a really, really strong person in the world that we have now to do all of the things you need to be able to do to protect yourself, to try and heal from gambling addiction. Quite honestly, I think the world is against you in trying to heal from it. It’s there, isn’t it? It’s all the time in everything, in all sorts of ways and it’s far too easy.
When you are out and about anywhere with a sport going on, you are hounded, hounded to put a bet on. That’s the same for people that are betting online. They get hounded, don’t they? Even when they’re dead, they get hounded.
I’ve been watching, I’m a Celebrity, and I’m desperate for Matt Hancock not to win. I’m buying five votes every night, but to get four votes you have to click on the advert. The advert is a gambling advert. Now I just click it over, but it’s that in your face all the time. You would just click and spend that money.
I just think the industry isn’t controlled enough, and they don’t care. There’s not a recognition of the harm, and it’s a bit like anything, isn’t it? I like a drink, I’ll have a glass of wine, and should I not be able to have wine because other people can’t manage? No, of course not, but I just think I still would have to go out, and do something about that, wouldn’t I? Even when my brother was a smoker, he still would have to go out to get those cigarettes. Now there’s just a little moment there where there’s just that opportunity for a think. I’m not saying it’s that easy but I just think gambling, it’s insidious. It’s there. You’re on Twitter, you’re on Facebook, and you’re watching TV.
And then all the free bets on these adverts? There are people that can’t listen to the radio on the school run because of the gambling adverts, the bingo adverts. They shouldn’t be allowed to advertise outside of the watershed…These windows on the shopfronts should be blacked out. There should be no enticements on the outside.
I used to listen to Planet Rock Radio Station and I stopped listening to it because I’ve realised there were gambling adverts all times of day. You turn on the TV, if you see advertisements, there’s gambling advertisements, they’re everywhere. You walk down the high street, there’s gambling shops everywhere. I didn’t see or hear any of these up until February. Then I have my eyes opened and suddenly it’s everywhere. It’s like, when you buy a new car and you don’t normally see that kind of car, and then you buy that car and suddenly you see them everywhere.
People also worry about the influence of advertising on other people, especially young people and children. They do not want them to go through the harm they have seen others experience. They worry about the longer-term consequences of gambling being made to seem normal for younger generations.
Gambling ads are just everywhere. I don’t smoke, but if I wanted to smoke, I know exactly where to get some cigarettes. There is no advertising… It needs to be the same with gambling.
There doesn’t need to be this bombardment, and also this normalization to children that this is okay, and this is a really fun thing to do, and actually, if you’re not doing it, you’re missing out. It just needs to stop, it’s just everywhere and it’s vile, in my opinion. For example, with my dad and the races, grand national was one of the biggest racing events of the year, and it’s everywhere. During that time, every time I see it, I feel sick, because I’m like, “Oh my God, is my dad seeing this? Is he going to put a bet on because he’s seen advert?”
I would love to see gambling advertising gone. I certainly would love to see it not on anything like sports shirts, children go to those matches. What messages are we sending to younger people about gambling as well?
My daughter, she gets really frustrated about the adverts and stuff. And she’ll say, like when she sees the safer gambling message pop up really quickly, she goes, “oh, you barely saw that it was on for like two seconds”, but she gets quite frustrated about it.
Gambling advertising is just everywhere now. It’s just been normalized, every time you put the TV you see advertising on football. There’s a new demographic of women gamblers that they’re targeting now. The younger generation now, if you look at any of them, they’re all on their phones, always watching football. It means more when there’s money it. That type of messaging is just it’s just awful.
Sponsorship
People are critical of football and broadcasters for taking gambling sponsorship. Several people compare gambling advertising to tobacco, saying in the future we would look back and be shocked that the gambling advertising we have now had been allowed.
We go to the football, around every single grand or advert or gambling all around it, it’s just in your face, sponsors on shirts. I refuse to buy any football stuff that has a gambling company on the front of it…We did it for cigarettes, didn’t we? Cigarettes don’t get advertised now…. Gambling advertising to me, needs to be regulated far more than it is, and maybe even restricted to certain times because it’s just constant now.
The advertising stuff does annoy me as well. I know people say, imagine this was a cigarette company, people would be so horrified. I hope that’s the way it goes that in the future, it’s looked at like tobacco companies and we just can’t believe that we ever had advertising.
Profit over people
Affected others say gambling advertising is not more restricted because of the profit made by gambling companies and the revenue that goes to government. They say that this marketing is not a benefit to consumers when it is about gambling and is only to increase profits for gambling companies.
Start with the big boys and start cutting down the amount of airtime they get, the amount of advertising they get. I know a lot of it’s because of revenue as well, isn’t it? Because the government gets revenue from them in billions. Then you look at something like that lady with Bet365 and you look at what she made this year, you know? That just shows you the scale, doesn’t it, of the problem really. When you look at something like that, you just think, “Wow, billions, millions.” It’s the scale of the problem.
Affected others were critical of ‘responsible gambling’ advertisements by gambling companies encouraging people to take a ‘timeout’. Others commented on the lack of messaging that shows the extent of gambling harm or the hypocrisy of doing a safer gambling week when football clubs still advertise gambling products football shirt and stadium sport sponsorship. They also point to how gambling adverts are designed to make feel people as though it is easy for people to control their gambling.
It’s like with the recent Bet365 advert that says, “Oh, be responsible. Put a timeout in and take your nan out for lunch. Take your child for ice cream.” As [son] says, “If you are a normal client, why would you need to put a timeout in place? What that advert is saying, “Hey, addicts, all of you guys that make us billions and billions of pounds, put a timeout in. Take granny for an ice cream down the beach. That’s a pat on the head. You’re doing a good job, now come back and gamble all your wages.”
I’m a football supporter, and I look, they had a ridiculous thing a couple of weeks ago where it was like– they didn’t advertise the gambling because all the championship teams are sponsored by Bet365. It was about promoting sensible gambling. I thought, well, that’s just ridiculous because every other week you are sponsored by them. They are your shirt sponsors, in their Twitter feed, there’s always like– it’s everywhere, isn’t? It’s just– it’s too easy.
I think because gambling and that kind of like, oh, put 50p. on the– it’s so now socially acceptable…Gambling kills people…There isn’t even safe gambling advice out there. There’s advice about safe alcohol consumption, your diet, your sun exposure, your sleep, everything, but not about gambling. Gambling, it kills people and it ruins lives. I don’t know why it doesn’t get the same kind of attention.
Sophisticated ways of getting different groups to gamble
People point out that gambling companies have sophisticated marketing strategies to target different groups and new groups of people. This includes the development of different products and how they are promoted. Women are targeted through daytime TV and radio, mostly with bingo and slots. Advertising appeals to women by linking gambling to community and friendship.
I would love to see psychology banned from advertising. I know that seems really a weird thing, but we all know that psychology is used very much in advertisements, and how to get into people’s brains. We know that the gambling industry has some amazing neurobiologists, neurologists, psychologists all sitting behind the scenes that know exactly what to put into an advert.
I think with women they come at us with, “Oh, come online, and there’s this wonderful online community, and you can chat to people and make friends, and don’t be lonely. While you’re waiting to play your 99 pence bingo card with your buy one, get one free. Here, have a go on these slot machines.” It’s the slot machines that I feel are the biggest trigger for people.
People point to how gambling companies have a great deal of data on them and use the fact they are a young person to heavily target gambling advertisements towards them on social media. People talk about the different strategies that high street gambling companies use to entice people to gamble. That includes promotions, jackpots, the use of vouchers to get people to play more, and food and drink to encourage people to continue gambling.
All the gambling facilities in the high street, the posters, and the colours are so enticing. That shouldn’t be allowed. It’s like a pub landlord walking outside with a bottle of whiskey trying to tempt in younger lads, kids maybe, “Come in here. This is great. Alcohol is amazing.” It’s the colours and the bloody machines themselves. Honestly, these fruit machines, these slot machines, do you know they entice you in, and then they give you all the free tea, coffee, biscuits, crisps, and anything else you want.
These bloody machines give out a £25 voucher, but you can’t use it that day, you have to use it next day because it expires at the end of the following day. These free bets, free spins. You might not have gone back the next day, but then you got this voucher and you might win that £500 jackpot, but of course, you use your £25 voucher, and you put in another £3, £4, £5, £6, £900. These enticements should be illegal. They’re disgusting.
The lure to get you in, and then they lure to keep you in, and they lure to get you to go back in. Do you know you can reserve a fruit machine? Yes. You could go in and load it full of hundreds of pounds so you know it’s going to pay out, but you’ve got to go, they will reserve that machine for you, so you go back in the next day and you’re straight back on it. How disgusting is that?
[Partner] said to me, “I want to go in and self-exclude. Will you come with me because I’m not strong enough to do it myself.” We went into two gambling shops. The first one, oh, these machines are so colourful. It’s like you say Vegas. It’s disgusting, and then the free food. The GambleAware poster was half behind a fruit machine at the very end of the shop in a dark corner, half in. That’s it. That’s it. There’s signs everywhere. “Free refreshments. Free snacks.”