Companies that work in the betting and gambling industry can often find themselves needing to walk a line between leisure and the hazardous on a regular basis; this is because of the nature of the services that they offer. Gambling can be a fun pastime that allows the people who engage in it to experience the rush that can often come with playing a game of chance.
Afterall, gambling has been part of human society for generations with various cultures developing their distinct games that allow thrillseekers to wager a small portion of a valuable resource in exchange for the possibility of a payoff. Many people flock to gambling locales across the world in cities such as Melbourne, Australia or Las Vegas, United States and who play the slots or bet on card games and never experience any adverse impact on their lives. They can step away from the game and know when it is time to quit.
There are other customers, however, for whom the lure of gambling can be too much to resist. These are the sorts of gamblers who might continue to bet money even when they are down and continue to do so in hopes of pursuing that thrill that can come when a player hits the jackpot. That fun might not ever happen again, and this can leave far too many people who become addicted to gambling to lose their belongings to their habit.
The general public can be apprehensive about gambling because the pastime is often associated with vice and can carry with it the possibility of addiction. These apprehensions are most likely what led to the United Kingdom have high regulatory laws that governed how gambling operators were allowed to advertise their services to the general public. As a regime change occurs at the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority, it appears as though regulators are poised to scrutinize gambling companies and their advertising practices more closely.
According to the Financial Times government official, David Currie has been named the new head of the Advertising Standards Authority. David Currie has recently raised the issue of how loosening the regulations that governed gambling ads in the United Kingdom might have contributed to the problem of gambling addiction.
The regulatory policy in question is the Gambling Act of 2005 which was passed by parliament more than a decade ago. The Gambling Act of 2005 gave gambling companies much more leeway about how they could advertise. Before the passage of that piece of legislation gambling operators were not allowed to advertise on television at all.
The policy enacted in 2005 wholly changed this by getting rid of the ban and enabling gambling companies to promote on TV with certain stipulations around the time of day that they could air their advertisements (after 9 pm only) and the demographics they could advertise (no teenagers). Recently several gambling companies have been scrutinized for publishing an ad that appeared to be a news article that was misleading about the benefits of gambling.
The new Advertising Standards Authority Chairman David Currie commented on this in the Financial Times by noting that ads were changing and that the ASA had to stay on top of new forms of advertising.
- The UK Gambling Industry Continues Its Rapid Growth - May 3, 2019
- E-sports is Expanding to Mobile Games - November 4, 2017
- Financial Advisor Jailed for Using £844,010 of Client Money to Gamble - October 23, 2017
