Ending gambling adverts could prevent harm to millions of adults and children in the UK

The harm caused by gambling in the UK is alarming. Official figures released in 2024 showed that 2.5% of the adult population has a gambling problem, with a further 12% gambling at increased risk and showing signs of harm.1 The UK government must respond to the new evidence on the scale of harm and take urgent action to end all gambling advertising.

Each person with a gambling problem has family and friends who are being harmed indirectly. Behind the numbers are human stories of damaged people and families. The harms include depression, strain on relationships, financial harms, prison, homelessness, and many suicides. The Department of Health and Social Care estimates that each year, in England, 117-496 people die by suicide that is related to gambling.2

It’s not just adults who are experiencing the harms of gambling. The most recent figures show that 27% of children aged 11-17 gamble and the number with problem gambling has doubled in the past year. This is causing damage to their family relationships, loss of sleep, and absence from school.3 Evidence shows that exposing children to gambling advertising is effective in increasing their likelihood to gamble, so stopping them seeing these adverts is an important harm prevention measure.4

The problem is global, with the World Health Organization recently releasing a factsheet showing that 1.2% of the global population experience a gambling disorder.5 Top of WHO’s list of actions to reduce the harm is to end gambling advertising, including promotion and sponsorship of sports and other cultural activities.5

In the UK, gambling firms spend around £1.5bn annually on gambling advertising.6 This advertising works, with the industry taking in £15.6bn a year of customer losses.7 Heavily promoting gambling, an activity that harms health, particularly the most addictive products such as online slots and casino games, is at odds with public health.

This is why the Faculty of Public Health has joined the Royal Society for Public Health and the Association of Directors of Public Health in their membership of the Coalition to End Gambling Ads. Together the coalition is calling on the UK government to end gambling advertising entirely.

Aware of the resistance from parts of the media and sports sectors to any reduction in advertising revenues from gambling, the coalition would support a phased approach to ending gambling advertising. In Australia, a parliamentary committee has recommended a phased end to all advertising for online gambling, starting with an end to inducements to gamble, followed by the introduction of an effective watershed, and culminating in a total end to advertising for online gambling after three years.8 At a minimum, Coalition to End Gambling Ads urges the UK government to adopt a similar approach.

Fortunately, in the UK no new primary legislation would be required to enable the government to end gambling advertising. The Gambling Act 2005 allows the secretary of state at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to make regulations controlling the advertising of gambling, including the form, timing, content, and location of adverts.9

Government action in this area would be supported by those in public health, the public themselves, and by many local authorities. A poll conducted in 2024 for Coalition to End Gambling Ads found that over half the public support an end to gambling advertising, with 78% agreeing that nobody under the age of 18 should be exposed to gambling adverts.10

More than 80 local authorities have adopted or support policies that stop gambling companies advertising on their billboards and owned media.1112 However, local authorities are unable to control adverts seen online and by media they don’t own, which is why central government action is so important.

We urge policy makers in central government to consider the evidence on harms caused by gambling advertising, and put a clear plan in place to protect health across the UK by phasing out all gambling advertising.

As a particular priority, action must be taken to protect children from being exposed to gambling adverts, and we call on government to take urgent action against the proliferation of gambling adverts on social media, in computer games, and through sport.