Gambling ADS allowed on UK Television

July 19, 2006

In the UK there is some great news in the online gambling front. Today, it is being reported throughout the UK that casinos, betting shops and other venues for casino gambling will soon be allowed to advertise themselves on UK television airwaves.

 Once the new legislation for the Gambling Act is fully in place in September of next year, there will in effect be no bans on television ads for gambling facilities and the like. The bans that are in place now will virtually disappear when the Gambling Act in is full force and laws are changed in favor of it.

In the UK, The Advertising Standards Authority will then become the watchdog organization that will govern the ads and make sure they stay within new gaming rules and regulations. Even though the Gambling Act will in play completely, there are still content guidelines that must be followed – just as they are for all other commercials on UK television. As long as the commercials are approved to contain proper advertising content, they will be free to air on UK TV stations.

Within the new gambling advert draft rules, commercials will in fact be forbidden from airing improper behavior which would deemed socially irresponsible or encourages gambling addiction.  

Among the rules will be the obvious inability to target minors as gamblers and such. Any statistically vulnerable group of people or persons will be out of bounds for gaming targets. Consider the similarity in casino adverts to the ones you already see for alcoholic beverages. Approved TV commercials in the UK will not be considered to be sexually charged in any way as well. As long as the adverts stick to gaming and casino gambling advertisement in a meaningful way, they will be good to go.

We look forward to seeing such positive ness in all casino gambling TV commercials in the UK next year.

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