Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of self-regulation by the sporting industry in reducing the quantity of gambling messaging seen by viewers.

In our approach to gambling advertising, we have struck a balanced and evidence-led approach which tackles aggressive advertising that is most likely to appeal to children, while recognising that advertising is an entirely legitimate commercial practice for responsible gambling firms.

We have welcomed the industry's whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting adverts during live sports programmes. According to figures from the Betting and Gaming Council, the ban reduced the quantity of gambling advertisement views by children (age 4-17) by 70% over the full duration of live sporting programmes.

Further, alongside the Premier League’s announcement that it will ban gambling sponsors from the front of shirts by the end of the 2025/26 season, the gambling white paper commitment for a cross-sport Code of Conduct for gambling sponsorship has now been agreed by a number of the country’s major sports governing bodies. This will guarantee that where gambling sponsorship does appear, it is done in a responsible way to ensure fans, especially children, are better protected. This code will include provisions to ensure replica shirts for both children and adults are available without front-of-shirt gambling logos and a proportion of in-stadia advertising is dedicated to safer gambling messaging.