GambleAware recently published a new study that I’d like to discuss – it’s about kids and gambling, and that’s a pretty important topic for all of us.
- “Report finds children describe how their online spaces can feel ”saturated” with gambling and gambling-like content and advertising.
- Researchers identified how the risks of online gambling are not understood by children due to the blurred lines between gambling and gambling-like activities such as loot boxes.
- GambleAware is calling for more regulation on gambling advertising online and in public spaces to protect children.”
I think my personal concern and interest in this topic is already clear here – we must not involve children in gambling.
I wanna referr to this quote:
A girl who was aged 13-14 and was an affected other said3: “[In] PHSE, they said it [gambling] is dangerous… but it didn’t proper like get through because they didn’t give us a lot of information about it.”
I believe that children should not be faced with gambling adverts at all. Unfortunately, this is actually impossible in the UK as we are constantly surrounded by: football, horse racing and betting, the National Lottery, bingo and a bunch of other gambling activities.
Of course, bingo isn’t technically considered gambling, but it can be categorised as a form of gambling.
This is a serious problem that our children see gambling as something routine for everyone.
But on other aspects of gambling advertising, I think the responsibility lies almost entirely with the gambling operators themselves, whether they are regulated or not, it’s not even a question of ethics, but children.
Zoë Osmond, CEO of GambleAware, said:
This research shows that gambling content is now part of many children’s lives. This is worrying as early exposure to gambling can normalise gambling for children at a young age, and lead to problems.
“We need to see more restrictions put on gambling advertising and content to ensure it is not appearing in places where children can see it. Urgent action is needed to protect children because they can be seriously affected by gambling harm, as a result of someone else’s gambling or their own participation.”
I won’t cite other quotes from this article – you can read it for yourself.
If not for the first time, it is quite rare for me to support the position of our regulators, and this is exactly the case.
Our regulators finally got down to business, and instead of trying to restrict our local market with yet another not the most logical and understandable restrictions, they saw the real problems.
And GambleAware is not technically a regulator, the UKGC is.
Hopefully, this problem will be made public and some action will be taken to restrict our children from gambling.
Editorial Opinion of the uk.nongamstopcasinos.net
Many may accuse that we are not angels ourselves, but I will remind you that our site, the main topic of which is casinos not on Gamstop – is primarily content aimed at experienced players who do not want to face the restrictions of the UKGC – maximum deposits, KYC-checks, payment system bans and so on.
We don’t advertise gambling to an insecure audience, our readers are seasoned players who know exactly what they want to find.
But in terms of real ethical questions, we think it’s a big problem that our children can’t tell the difference between casual games and gambling, and that’s where we expect the government to take real action.
Quotes and References
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