Legislation
UK – ASA reports huge drop in number of underage advertising breaches by gambling companies
By Phil - 15 February 2021
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has seen a drop in the number of breaches of age restriction by online gambling advertisements in the UK.
The ASA’s latest report highlighted that only three of the adverts identified in the latest report related to gambling. These appeared on three different websites but were published by the same advertising agency. A similar report last year found 70 gambling adverts that breached restrictions. In its second report, corresponding to the period from July to September the number fell to five.
The ASA said: “Following our first and second reports, the ASA is encouraged by the lower number of ads found to have broken the rules. Once we have run the monitoring again in Q1 2021, we will in the summer publish a final report, reflecting back on this year-long project and in which we reserve the discretion to publicise repeat offenders, if there are any.”
ASA chief executive Guy Parker said: “We remain alive to concerns and we will be monitoring and reporting on this again. But we’re making significant progress in our ambition to build a culture of zero tolerance for age-restricted ads appearing on websites aimed at children and we expect that progress to continue.”
