TV gambling ads that offer punters “free money” if they sign up with bookmakers online, including Ray Winstone’s commercials for Bet365, are expected to be ditched under new rules proposed by the industry.
William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral and Paddy Power committed to a series of measures on Monday as they look to head off tough statutory measures that threaten the prevalence of betting shops, high-speed roulette machines and aggressive punter-recruitment adverts promising “free money”.
These measures including a promise “to introduce a voluntary TV advertising ban on sign-up offers (free bets and free money) before 9pm”.
Such commercials typically offer customers free money in return for registering online with a bookie.
All the leading bookies offer such “free bets”, as a means of drawing in new customers. According to estimates, such free bets amount to around 20% of the four bookies’ TV advertising.
Ladbrokes, William Hill, Coral and Paddy Power have now committed to not run such ads from 1 October, with the rest of the industry expected to follow suit.
An example of such advertising is the long running campaign for online-only bookmaker Bet365 featuring Winstone which offers gamblers a free “deposit bonus” of £200 if they sign up.
Bet365 is expected to sign up to the new pledges in the coming months, which will be overseen by a new industry body, the Senet Group.
A spokesman for the Senet Group said: “We are in discussions with the industry and hope that more organisations will join.”
The other key measures proposed by the bookmakers are the withdrawal of all advertising of gaming machines from betting shop windows and a commitment that 20% of shop window advertising will go towards responsible gambling messages.
Further pledges from the industry, to be introduced from the start of next year, will be the funding of a major new advertising campaign to educate people on responsible gambling, and for all TV advertising to carry more responsible gambling messages.
Richard Glynn, chief executive of Ladbrokes, said: “Gambling has long been a leisure pursuit and part of the cultural fabric of the UK, but we are alive to the concerns of the public to keep gambling a responsible and fun activity.”
James Henderson, chief executive of William Hill, said: “The launch of the Senet Group sets a benchmark by which we and the betting industry can be judged.”
Carl Leaver, group chief executive of Gala Coral, said: “Actions speak louder than words. That’s why the Senet Group will be given the independence, budget and purpose to hold the betting industry to account.”
Patrick Kennedy, chief executive of Paddy Power, said: “Putting responsible gambling at the heart of our business is simply the right thing to do.”
The pledges were announced on Monday in a full-page open letter published as an ad in national newspapers by the bosses of the four companies.
The number of gambling commercials on British TV rocketed from 234,000 a year to nearly 1.4m annually between the deregulation of the sector in 2007 and 2012, according to Ofcom research published in November last year.
The research showed that viewers were bombarded with 1.39m gambling ads in 2012, with under-16s exposed to an average of 211 ads each.
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