ASA Reveals Report on Children’s Exposure to TV Gambling Ads in 2020

UK’s Advertising Standards Authority released its latest report on children’s exposure to TV gambling ads last week. According to the report, children’s exposure to gambling ads kept a low level in 2020, reaching its lowest point for the last 13 years.

ASA Unveils a Report on Children’s Exposure to TV Gambling Ads

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK released its latest report on children’s exposure to TV gambling advertising in 2020. Published last week Friday, the report found that for the 13 years until 2020, children’s exposure to gambling advertising remained fairly stable. Furthermore, the ASA found out that in the last five years until 2020, children’s exposure to gambling ads has kept lower levels.

The report acknowledges the progress which the gambling advertising rules have made since their introduction back in 2008. The ASA chose the year as the starting point for analysis of the patterns of exposure, identified in the most recent report.

“Children’s exposure to gambling ads, relative to adults’, has fallen year-on-year from 38.6% in 2008 to 16.3% in 2020, the lowest in the 13-year period.”

Advertising Standards Authority

According to the report, children’s exposure to gambling ads which are targeting adults has fallen significantly since 2008. Back then, 38.6% of children have been exposed to such ads, while in 2020, this number decreased to 16.3%. Furthermore, the ASA acknowledged that this was the lowest recorded data for the last 13 years.

Additionally, ASA’s report found that the majority of gambling ads that children have seen since 2011 are related to bingo, scratch cards, and lottery. Children’s exposure to lottery and scratch card ads on TV has increased slightly in 2020 when compared to 2019. However, the overall exposure has kept similar levels for the last 7 consecutive years. On the other hand, children’s exposure to bingo ads on TV has kept a similar level to the values recorded in the last three years.

Children’s Exposure to All TV Ads Declines in 2020

Focusing on the bigger picture the report found that children’s exposure to all TV ads had reduced significantly in 2020. After a recorded peak of 229.3 ads per week in 2013, it shrank to 103.7 ads per week in 2020. Furthermore, for the same period, the exposure of children to gambling ads decreased by more than a third.

“Children’s exposure to all TV ads reduced by just over half from a peak of 229.3 ads per week in 2013 to a low of 103.7 ads per week in 2020.”

Advertising Standards Authority

Between 2008 and 2017, on average, gambling ads represented only 2% of the ads which the children saw on TV. The report indicated that this value increased slightly to 2.2% in 2018. Another marginal increase was also observed in 2020 when gambling ads represented 2.7% of the TV ads that children saw.