The UK National Lottery Commission sponsored a recent survey which was conducted by Ipsos MORI (a survey organization) and the University of Salford’s Centre for the Study of Gambling., The results of the survey have revealed children’s attitudes to gambling offline and on the internet at an online casino or bingo website.

The survey inquired the attitudes and experiences of 9,000 children aged 12-15 with reference to gambling and discovered that overall, fewer children were likely to purchase National Lottery tickets, scratch cards and play casino games.

According to the survey “Rates of problem gambling have fallen since 2005-06: 2% children were identified as problem gamblers compared with 3.5% in 2005-06. It is likely that this drop reflects falling levels of gambling among children over time, particularly on potentially more addictive forms of gambling such as slot machines.”

The survey also found that children who were questioned were now more aware of television and online advertising, with 78% saying that they could remember seeing an internet pop up or television advert relating to an online casino, bingo, or sportsbook website. In addition to this, children who had gambled in the past seven days were more likely to recall seeing a gaming orientated advertisement, with 82% able to remember viewing an advert. The report stated that these findings “highlight the value of continued vigilance in monitoring gambling advertisements to limit their potential appeal to children.”

The ASA or the Advertising Standards Agency, that regulates gambling adverts in order to protect the vulnerable and children, has been banning adverts which breach the ASA’s ad code for a long time now. Mostly, the ASA banned a series of Intercasino’s television advertising campaigns “as the slapstick humour in (the) ads was likely to appeal to children and young persons.”

Although, critics have advised that the ASA’s gambling advertisement legislation should become a bit lenient in its actions. When a series of Ladbrokes ads were banned, the managing director of the betting firm described the ASA’s ruling as “an example of political correctness going too far”.

Tags: ASA, ladbrokes, National Lottery Commission

Posted by Diana Sterling in Gambling News, Online Gambling | 21 Comments »

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