Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing restrictions on the use of cartoons and animated figures in gambling advertising campaigns to ensure that they are not targeted at young people.

Strict rules already ensure gambling adverts are not targeted at, or appeal to, children, or exploit the vulnerable, and these apply across all media, including online and on social media.

Gambling operators are required to comply with the advertising codes of practice issued by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP). These are enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). In addition to rules covering children, the advertising codes have specific provisions to protect vulnerable people, and CAP’s new guidance in February further restricted adverts that create an inappropriate sense of urgency or give an irresponsible perception of risk or control.

Gambling adverts must not feature content that risks appealing to children, for example cartoon animals. Last year the Gambling Commission and ASA acted quickly to make clear that operators using such images were in breach of advertising rules and must remove the material or face enforcement action. In addition to rules on content, the ASA has made clear that operators advertising online must use data on customers’ interests to target marketing campaigns away from children.

The government considered gambling advertising as part of our Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures and set out a package of initiatives to strengthen protections further, including further CAP guidance on protecting children and young people, and tougher Gambling Commission sanctions for breaches of the advertising codes, including fines.