UK children continue to see fewer gambling promos on television, according to the latest report by the country’s advertising regulator.
On Friday, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) released its latest report on children’s exposure to alcohol and gambling ads on television. The ASA has been studying this subject since 2008 and released the 2018 figures last December.
The 2019 report shows that kids – defined as aged 4-15 years – saw an average of 2.5 television gambling ads per week last year, down significantly from 3.2 ads per week in 2018. The 2019 figure remains slightly higher than the 2.2 ads per week reported in 2008 but, with the exception of 2018, the figures have remained at similar levels over the last six years. The figure peaked at 4.4 ads per week in 2013.
Gambling ads made up 2.1% of all TV advertising viewed by kids in 2019, down slightly from 2018’s 2.2% and just above the 2% average between 2008 and 2017. But kids’ exposure to gambling ads, relative to adults, fell to 17.2%, down from 20.4% in 2018 and the lowest level that the ASA has reported to date.
In terms of product, bingo ads claimed the lead in 2019 with 0.9 ads viewed per week, unchanged from 2018 but lottery products fell to 0.8 from 1 in 2018, allowing bingo to take the lead. Sports betting ads fell from 0.7 in 2018 to 0.3 – a record low – while online casino ads slipped to 0.5 from 0.6 in 2018.
The ASA noted that kids are generally watching less TV these days and thus their exposure to all TV advertising has fallen nearly 50% since 2013. That’s a much greater decline than adults, whose ad views per week peaked at 378.4 in 2011 and stood at 335.5 in 2019, a decline of only 11.4%.
In 2019, kids watched an average of 7.5 hours of TV per week, down 1.5 hours from 2018 and less than half the 17.6 hours viewed per week in 2010. Those aged 10-15 viewed even less TV than younger kids, as their attention shifts to online content.
