Prime Minister urged to tackle harmful gambling advertising

Children must be protected from the harms caused by gambling advertising, Labour MP Dr Beccy Cooper has told the Prime Minister.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Dr Cooper highlighted gambling addiction as a “serious public health harm”, and criticised industry giants for spending billions on advertising, often targeted towards the vulnerable.

The Government made a manifesto pledge to reform gambling legislation, and recently announced significantly higher levies for online betting companies — expected to raise £1 billion a year.

Public health harm

Dr Cooper stated: “Gambling addiction is a serious public health harm causing ill health and misery for millions of people in this country.”

She explained: “The industry now spends 2 billion pounds a year on advertising, often targeting vulnerable people and exposing our children to harm.”

The MP for Worthing West welcomed the new higher tax on “harmful online gambling products”, and asked Sir Keir Starmer: “Would the Prime Minister agree with me, therefore, that to continue this essential work we must now tackle harmful gambling advertising to protect the health of our children?”

The Prime Minister agreed that “harm from online gambling has surged” and noted that “NHS referrals are up 91 per cent in the past year”.

He said that the Government is “working with industry to ensure that adverts don’t exacerbate harm” and highlighted a £26 million investment in the Gambling Commission to “crack down on black market sites and illegal adverts to keep players safe”.

Appealing to children

Problem gambling among children aged 11-18 doubled between 2023 and 2024 – equating to around 85,000 young people nationwide. Research shows that almost 90 per cent of 13-17 year-olds have been exposed to online gambling promotions.

Recently, gambling companies Betway and Kwiff were adjudged to have acted irresponsibly by breaking marketing rules protecting under-18s from gambling ads.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld separate complaints against both companies, concluding that the identified advertisements were “likely to be of strong appeal to children or young persons” and therefore breached its code of conduct.