Journal article 272 views 43 downloads
Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges
,
Leonardo Weiss-Cohen,
Jamie Torrance ,
Yakov Bart
Addictive Behaviors, Volume: 160, Start page: 108161
Swansea University Author:
Jamie Torrance
-
PDF | Version of Record
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license.
Download (1.13MB)
DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108161
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...
| Published in: | Addictive Behaviors |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0306-4603 1873-6327 |
| Published: |
Elsevier BV
2025
|
| Online Access: |
Check full text
|
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71039 |
| 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. |
|---|---|
| Keywords: |
Gambling marketing; Safer gambling; Commercials; Gambling harm reduction |
| College: |
Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences |
| Funders: |
Funded by a NCH-NU Research and Learning Development Initiative Grant. |
| Start Page: |
108161 |