Gambling Survey 2007, a sure-fire winner

28 February 2008

During September and October, the Compliance team undertook a survey of gambling advertisements to coincide with the changes to the rules for Gambling advertisements.

The new legislation, introduced in September 2007, replaced existing law and gave new scope for bookmakers, betting exchanges, casinos and lotteries to advertise.  The general principle of the new CAP and BCAP clauses for gambling product ads is that the advertisements should not portray, condone or encourage gambling behaviour that is socially irresponsible or could lead to financial, social or emotional harm.

Advertisements for those products should not exploit the susceptibilities, aspirations, credulity, inexperience or lack of knowledge of children, young persons and other vulnerable persons. Casinos may now advertise in the general non-broadcast media, not merely in classified ad space.

The objective of the survey was to assess compliance with the new clauses for gambling advertisements and, if problems were found, to be bring them to the attention of the ASA or CAP for possible action.  We assessed gambling advertisements that appeared in September and October 2007 in the national press, consumer magazines, posters, direct mailings, circulars and the Internet and on TV and radio against the relevant Codes.  The compliance rate was 99%.

The survey looked at 784 advertisements, only seven of which seemed to breach the Code.  Six of the seven questionable advertisements appeared on TV; the remaining advertisement was an Internet pop-up ad.

The results of the survey were extremely encouraging and suggest marketers have heeded the new Code changes.  The Compliance team will nevertheless continue to monitor gambling advertisements to ensure a continuing high rate of Compliance.