Gambling dice
Guidelines that were issued seeking to mitigate damage done to vulnerable persons by the liberalisation of gambling under the Gambling Act 2005 seem ineffective and gambling advertising is everywhere, especially in sports sponsorship watched by many children.
Many who saw the liberalisation of gambling under the Gambling Act 2005 as a measure that encouraged a fundamentally harmful activity, will doubt whether these advertising guidelines ever could be effective.
Even though advertising professionals are past masters at targeting specific groups of people, the reality of advertising an activity to any part of the population is that the activity inevitably will be promoted to the wider population as well.
Children are included in the category of vulnerable persons. The guidelines naturally prevent children from being shown playing roulette or winning on the slot machines. But if adults are shown enjoying playing roulette or winning on the slot machines, children will want to copy the grown-ups.
Guidelines exist in the UK to prevent young people from being targeted by advertising for alcoholic drinks. Yet drunken behaviour amongst under drinking age children is such a problem that the government has had to introduce a whole range of sanctions to cope with these problems. (Anti Social Behaviour Orders or A.S.B.O.s)
The marketing message promoted by advertising on behalf of cigarette manufacturers has been so powerful that many adults continue to smoke despite anti-smoking messages on the side of cigarette packets clearly stating the horrific health risks and now pictures of diseased lungs. Who has not seen young children walking down the streets in the United Kingdom smoking cigarettes as they go?
Advertising promotes an image and makes a promise, amongst other things. Preventing vulnerable people from being exposed to these images and promises is extremely difficult. Ultimately, advertising may be necessary to inform the general public about the dangers of gambling but the weight of government-funded anti gambling advertising can never be equal to the enormous resources the gambling organisations can deploy to promote gambling.
The genie is out of the bottle and there is little that a few advertising guidelines can do to remedy the situation.
Bye for now
Rob
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