The Betting and Gaming Council has called for new measures and additional cooperation from social media firms to reduce the number of gambling adverts seen by young and at-risk people on social media.
In a letter to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, BGC Chief Executive Michael Dugher has demanded more pressure from the UK government on social media platforms to further collaborate with the industry to help limit gambling harm among young and at-risk people.
Dugher noted that while such platforms have allowed the public to opt out of receiving gambling advertisements, more needs to be done, especially to help those who have signed up for self-exclusion.
A ‘marketing suppression scheme’ has been proposed, which would prevent 300,000 GAMSTOP registrants from receiving direct advertising, while the BGC also want to limit advertisements reaching specific age groups.
The Chief Executive wrote: “This is impossible to achieve without the cooperation of the social media platforms themselves. This is a sensible solution, which BGC members are keen on implementing, but we cannot do so without the cooperation of social media platforms.
“I would urge you to help on this matter by calling on social media platforms to finally cooperate with the BGC and make the relevant functionality available, so we can help protect the most vulnerable.”
The BGC added that members have already undertaken action to ensure online gambling marketing is only seen by those legally allowed to gamble, including targeting advertisements to people aged over 25.
The body noted that members are only allowed to target over 18s if they can verify the accuracy of their advertising targeting. There is also a ban on football clubs from using social media platforms to post direct gambling marketing.