The amount of money spent by the gambling industry on marketing rose to £1.5bn in 2017, according to a study by the gambling charity, GambleAware.
The findings come at the same time as a report by the UK Gambling Commission revealed that there had been a significant rise in the level of underage gambling.
The GambleAware report showed that betting companies have raised their advertising spend by 56 per cent since 2014, and are now spending five times more spent on internet marketing than on TV commercials. The betting industry now spends £747 million on direct online marketing, £301 million through affiliate websites, £234 million on television ads and £149m on social media marketing. The total of £1.5 billion total represents around 8 percent of the overall UK advertising market.
The level of gambling industry advertising spend is also seven times larger than that of Proctor & Gamble, which is currently the largest single advertiser in the UK. It is also 150 times greater than the total of £10 million that gambling companies pay towards a levy to support gambling addiction treatment. Speaking about the findings, the chief executive of GambleAware, Marc Etches, said he was particularly concerned about the rise in underage gambling:
Children are growing up in a very different world than their parents. Compared to other potentially harmful activities, the rate of gambling among young people is higher than the rates of drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and taking illegal drugs.”
The Gambling Commission study, which was carried out by Regulus Partners, found that around one in eight children in the 11 to 16 age range followed a gambling company through social media, and that those who did were three times more likely to be gambling.
