By Scott Longley, Editorial Director, Regulus Insights
The timing
of the leaking of a letter from Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the
Treasury to his government colleague Sajid Javid, the culture secretary, about
the issue of betting adverts around sporting events was unfortunate for the
gambling industry.
The
publication of the letter in the Daily
Mail (of course) came on the same day that the new gambling industry body
Senet launched its own responsible gambling advertisements, with the tag line
‘when the fun stops, stop’.
Conspiracy
theorists within the gambling sector are likely to see dark motives behind the
timing of the leak, but whether coincidental or not the reported contents of
the letter suggest there is unlikely to be any let up in political pressure on
the sector in the run up to May’s General Election.
Alexander
said in his letter he was “increasingly concerned” by the prevalence of
gambling-related adverts around televised sporting events that, because they
occur before 9pm, are more likely to be watched by children. Alexander went on:
“It has now become almost impossible to watch any kind of sports event
without being bombarded by highly solicitous advertising. The decision by the
previous government to allow betting companies to advertise during sports
events before the watershed is completely anomalous. It was, of course, part of
a grubby deal cooked up by the last Labour government.”
This weaponising of the anti-gambling debate on the
part of the Liberal Democrats is sure to make life even trickier for the
sector. Polling evidence last year would suggest the party sees gambling as one
of its potential touchstones with potential voters. A YouGov survey in April
last year found that fully 71% of intended Lib Dem voters thought there should
be further tightening of the regulations around gambling.
Barely have the Senet ads got an airing, and the
industry is once again on the back foot. As a part of the new industry body
platform, the industry has already imposed a voluntary ban on the advertising
of free bets before 9pm, but this has clearly failed to quell disquiet among
the industry’s critics over the insistency of ‘in-play’ ads around football
matches.
Specifically, Alexander was calling for the DCMS to
speed its own response to a recent review of gambling advertising issues by the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The DCMS responded by repeating its
mantra that player protection was “at the heart of gambling policy”, adding
that its review would be published shortly.
The difficulty for those now lobbying the government
is to know what to expect next. The ASA report, covered previously by this
blog, did not recommend any actions with regard to pre-9pm watershed. Recall,
though, that it did note that the ‘bet now’ ads typified by bet365’s Ray
Winstone spots were due further scrutiny. “We’ll be more proactive on issues relating to social
responsibility, especially around ‘toughness’ in ads and particular appeal to children,
finding ways to continue to source data to inform our decision-making,” the ASA
said back in November.
As the news this week about plain packaging of
cigarettes has proved, just because there is every indication that an issue is
being kicked into the long grass doesn’t mean it is going to stay there. The
shooting of Labour foxes is likely to be a general pastime on the part of both
coalition partners, and the Liberal Democrats in particular will be looking to
aim both barrels at any issue which they think they can legitimately own. Increased
regulation of is arguably one of those.
The Daily Mail
article suggested the DCMS was ‘resistant’ to change, but it is unlikely the
gambling industry and its lobbyists can take much comfort from that. In the
words of Alexander, “this is a matter of principle, and I believe the time to
act is now”. It’s the handicap bet the industry never wanted to see come about
– bet now v act now. There can only be one winner.
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