Lords call for UK ban on gambling advertising
The House of Lords Liaison Committee has called on the government to ban virtually all gambling advertising to protect public health. This is reported by The Guardian with reference to the report of the Committee.
The House of Lords Liaison Committee has called on the government to ban virtually all gambling advertising to protect public health. This is reported by The Guardian with reference to the report of the Committee.
In a 173-page document, the committee criticised the government for being "too passive" about the flow of online gambling advertising. According to the authors of the report, last year bookmakers and casinos in the country earned £12.6 billion. Up to 1.4 million people in the UK have a gambling addiction. The authors of the initiative recommend a complete ban on advertising gambling on the model of tobacco, with exceptions for lotteries and racetracks.
Industry lobby group Betting & Gaming Council has already called the Lords initiative "deeply misguided." They said the ban would only strengthen the illegal market. The authors of the report, in turn, believe that such concerns should not distract attention from the harm caused to citizens by the legal gambling market.
Spending on advertising in the sector, which is regulated by the Gambling Act 2005, reached £2 billion in 2024.
Ekaterina Naumova
