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

Philip Newall Orcid Logo, Leonardo Weiss-Cohen, Jamie Torrance Orcid Logo, Yakov Bart Orcid Logo

Addictive Behaviors, Volume: 160, Start page: 108161

Swansea University Author: Jamie Torrance Orcid Logo

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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...

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Published in: Addictive Behaviors
ISSN: 0306-4603 1873-6327
Published: Elsevier BV 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71039
first_indexed 2025-12-01T13:58:24Z
last_indexed 2025-12-02T07:55:03Z
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spelling 2025-12-01T15:35:11.5486649 v2 71039 2025-12-01 Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges de868c4f56d8f5fbecbd686fdbb7b4b5 0000-0001-5001-4126 Jamie Torrance Jamie Torrance true false 2025-12-01 PSYS 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. Journal Article Addictive Behaviors 160 108161 Elsevier BV 0306-4603 1873-6327 Gambling marketing; Safer gambling; Commercials; Gambling harm reduction 1 1 2025 2025-01-01 10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108161 COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee Funded by a NCH-NU Research and Learning Development Initiative Grant. 2025-12-01T15:35:11.5486649 2025-12-01T13:53:12.6441284 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Philip Newall 0000-0002-1660-9254 1 Leonardo Weiss-Cohen 2 Jamie Torrance 0000-0001-5001-4126 3 Yakov Bart 0000-0002-4094-9873 4 71039__35724__98cb913333204ba0b04f2e02a50b0f35.pdf 71039.VOR.pdf 2025-12-01T15:32:56.7855430 Output 1179954 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges
spellingShingle Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges
Jamie Torrance
title_short Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges
title_full Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges
title_fullStr Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges
title_full_unstemmed Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges
title_sort Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges
author_id_str_mv de868c4f56d8f5fbecbd686fdbb7b4b5
author_id_fullname_str_mv de868c4f56d8f5fbecbd686fdbb7b4b5_***_Jamie Torrance
author Jamie Torrance
author2 Philip Newall
Leonardo Weiss-Cohen
Jamie Torrance
Yakov Bart
format Journal article
container_title Addictive Behaviors
container_volume 160
container_start_page 108161
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 0306-4603
1873-6327
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108161
publisher Elsevier BV
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 1
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description 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.
published_date 2025-01-01T05:34:24Z
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