It’s the job of legislative body members to question what’s best for society at large and attempt to make changes based on their opinions. One such MP is doing just that with regards to the advertisements put out by online sports betting sites.
Liberal Democrat, Tessa Munt, is calling on none other than the Prime Minister to look into what she terms “aggressive” ad campaigns by these types of businesses. According to Munt, the high level of television advertising in this market could negatively affect childrens’ perceptions of gambling and derail the recovery of a period in which 1.45 trillion GBP is outstanding in Great Britain. She feels that as the government is urging its citizens to curtail their debt and spending, they also need to curtail temptation to spend and increase monies owed to outside parties. Munt has requested that an audit be conducted by Ofcom, the UK communications industries’ regulator, as to the exact volume of these advertisements.
These comments are largely opinion based and not backed up with any factual information or statistics. All gambling related television advertisements whether for online casinos or sports betting operations have to undergo extremely strict scrutiny from TV regulators anyway. There is nothing more aggressive about sports betting advertisements than your aveage Mcdonald’s TV ad campaign. In fact, sports betting ads provide a level of entertainment which is not present in other industries TV campaigns.
It appears UK Prime Minister David Cameron is sitting on the fence on this one. He doesn’t really take sides in the debate and issued a very vague and obvious statement which is being supported at the moment regardless. Cameron stated, “a question of responsibility by the companies concerned. Anyone who enjoys watching a football match will see quite aggressive advertisements on the television, and I think companies have to ask themselves whether they are behaving responsibly when they do that.”
Online bookmaker Paddy Power responded publicly to Cameron’s comments by saying that gaming advertising was “entertaining rather than aggressive.” According to M.P. Munt, there are 36 hours of casino and gaming advertisements per week on UK television.
