Key findings

• Rules and regulations of gambling marketing and content online do not reflect the unique challenges presented by the “digital age.”
• Children and young people are regularly exposed to gambling, an age restricted product, across online platforms which normalises gambling as risk-free and increases the risk of gambling harm.
• An estimated 85,000 children in GB are experiencing problems with gambling, with four in five children wanting the government to do more to reduce the amount of gambling content they see online.
• Currently, the responsibility for regulating online gambling marketing is distributed across multiple government bodies and regulators, with no clear oversight from one body. This is exacerbated by a regulatory framework that relies too heavily on self-regulation.
• The paper calls on the UK Government to more effectively regulate gambling marketing and content online by aligning online safety powers, increasing action by online platforms, establishing a government taskforce to explore targeted policies, and addressing gambling content more effectively through existing online programmes and self-regulatory mechanisms.