They are faced with a \u201cdizzying\u201d number of advertisements for gambling on social media, according to researchers from University of Cambridge and Munster Technological University, Cork.<\/p>\n
The researchers looked at 411 advertisements from 88 gambling operators in Ireland, and found that young men were reached 2.3 times more than women across Meta platforms,such as Facebook and Instagram,even if they did not directly target them .<\/p>\n
The age group most exposed to gambling advertising was 25 to 34-year-olds, who accounted for over a third of all unique accounts reached, a total of more than 6.2 million impressions, according to the study in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions.<\/p>\n
The researchers used the Meta Ad Library to conduct the study.<\/p>\n
Under the EU Digital Services Act, Meta and other online service providers must publish all advertising shown on their platforms in EU countries and provide demographic data about who saw them.<\/p>\n
Dr Elena Petrovskaya from Cambridge\u2019s Department of Computer Science and Technology said: \u201cEven in a country like Ireland with a small population, the number of accounts these ads reached was dizzying.”<\/p>\n
The findings are published as new gambling legislation has come into effect in Ireland, banning most social media gambling advertising unless users actively opt in to see it.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the findings Prof Colin O’Gara, Clinical Professor, School of Medicine, University College Dublin & Head of Addiction Services at St. John of God Hospital said: \u201cIn my view, we have a real problem with the proliferation and normalization of gambling among young men, driven in large part by advertising.<\/p>\n
“Over the past two decades, this has been dominated by largely one-sided, heavily promoted, celebrity-endorsed campaigns.<\/p>\n
“We have to take gambling advertising incredibly seriously. For those who already have a gambling problem, it disproportionately affects them and can trigger relapse.<\/p>\n
“For those who are vulnerable, it can drive initiation. It is a key engine of harm, and if we are serious about tackling gambling harm, advertising has to be at the top of the agenda.<\/p>\n
“The difficulty is that the online space is particularly hard to regulate. That\u2019s why defining it and gathering meaningful data is so important. This study is welcome in that regard: it uses a novel, compelling method to access advertising data and understand its reach.<\/p>\n
“We argued many years ago \u2013 back in 2019 in the Irish College of Psychiatrists\u2019 position paper \u2013 that there should be an outright ban on gambling advertising, rather than relying on a watershed that bans it on TV and radio before 9pm. The reality is that not all children are going to bed by then, and most children in Ireland have smartphones from around the age of 12 and are being exposed to these ads online.<\/p>\n
“With the current legislation, a new commission has been established, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland [GRAI].<\/p>\n
“The question is whether it is set up to handle this kind of challenge, and whether the legislation underpinning it goes far enough. In the past, I have commented that this is a huge task, particularly when you consider regulation of the online space.<\/p>\n
“The GRAI will have responsibility across the board, including online, and this highlights the need for significant resourcing. It will require substantial support in terms of technical expertise and investment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They are faced with a \u201cdizzying\u201d number of advertisements for gambling on social media, according to researchers from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[29864,134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-402328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-eilish-oregan","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-mental-health","11":"tag-mentalhealth","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}