Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges

Newall, Philip; Weiss-Cohen, Leonardo; Torrance, Jamie; Bart, Yakov

Abstract

Public concern around gambling advertising in the UK has been met not by government action but by industry self-regulations, such as a forthcoming voluntary ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship in Premier League soccer. “Safer gambling” (harm prevention) adverts are one recent example, and are TV commercials which inform viewers about gambling-related harm. The present work is the first independent evaluation of safer gambling adverts by both gambling operators and a charity called GambleAware. In an online experiment, we observed the change in participants’ (N = 2,741) Gambling Urge Scale (GUS) scores after viewing either: a conventional financial inducement gambling advert, a gambling operator's safer gambling advert, an advert from the GambleAware “bet regret” campaign, an advert from the GambleAware “stigma reduction” campaign, or a control advert that was not about gambling. Relative to a neutral control advert, GUS scores increased after viewing a financial inducement or an operator's safer gambling advert. In comparison to the neutral control condition, GUS score changes were similar after viewing a bet regret advert, but showed a significant decrease after viewing a stigma reduction advert. Those at higher risk of harm reported larger decreases in GUS after watching a bet regret or stigma reduction advert. Overall, this study introduced a novel experimental paradigm for evaluating safer gambling adverts, uncovered a potential downside from gambling operators’ safer gambling adverts, and revealed variation in the potential effectiveness of charity-delivered safer gambling adverts.

Citation

Newall, P., Weiss-Cohen, L., Torrance, J., & Bart, Y. (2025). Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges. Addictive Behaviors, 160, Article 108161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108161

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 6, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Sep 8, 2024
• Publication Date: 2025-01
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 20, 2024
• Journal: Addictive Behaviors
• Print ISSN: 0306-4603
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-6327
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 160
• Article Number: 108161
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108161
• Keywords: Gambling marketing; Safer gambling; Commercials; Gambling harm reduction
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/39727839
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460324002107?via%3Dihub
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges; Journal Title: Addictive Behaviors; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108161; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.