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Northern Ireland’s All-Party Group (APG) on Reducing Harm Related to Gambling has heard from the authors of a report that warns of an urgent need to reduce the amount of gambling advertising across the both the North and the Republic.
The “Code Red: Young People and Their Exposure to Gambling Marketing Through Media and Sport on the Island of Ireland” report was published on October 4 by the Youth, Gambling Marketing and the Shared Island (YouGaMSI) project.
YouGaMSI is funded by the Shared Ireland Fund, a joint government initiative that supports projects that enhance cooperation and understanding across the island of Ireland.
The report has six key recommendations the first being both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland need to “urgently implement legislation to curtail the volume, frequency and timing of gambling marketing".
“This is especially important on broadcast and on-demand television distributed before the watershed (up to 21.00), and online,” it said.
Ireland’s gambling regulation bill, which could complete its final stage this week, includes a controversial watershed gambling advertising ban between 5:30am and 9:00pm, which horse and greyhound racing stakeholders have warned could make their sports economically unviable.
The YouGaMSI report also recommends updating advertising regulations to “cover contemporary marketing strategies” and a cross-departmental approach to tackle marketing in live sport.
It also suggested adding professional broadcast and social media practice guidelines, to be updated to recognise gambling as a public health issue, and a gambling levy in both jurisdictions to fund public health and education campaigns.
Additionally, sports organisations in Ireland that receive state funding should be required to eliminate their reliance on gambling marketing at all sporting events venues, and especially from areas visible in broadcast programmes, according to the report.
On October 8, the APG was briefed by professor Aphra Kerr of Maynooth University and Dr Paul Kitchin of Ulster University on the report's findings.
Kerr told the APG the research revealed that youth exposure to gambling marketing is “very high” and some sports have reached “saturation” level, particularly darts and horseracing, as well as flagging gambling ad exposure in Premier League football broadcasts.
Northern Ireland is in the second stage of reforming the country’s gambling laws.
The Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Amendment) Bill was passed in 2022 and a second piece of legislation is expected to address online gambling more directly.
In July 2024, the APG made 57 recommendations to the Northern Ireland Executive, including a new independent regulator, spending loss limits and that consideration should be given to an advertising ban.
It followed comments from Gordon Lyons, the minister for communities since February 2024, who said his current mandate would be used to ensure gambling legal changes would be ready to be introduced as soon as possible at the start of the next mandate.
In the meantime, the Department For Communities (DfC) has commissioned a new gambling prevalence survey and will provide a set of industry codes of practice for consideration, as it works on the next stage of reforming the country’s gambling laws.
