GambleAware has raised concerns regarding the effects of celebrity-fronted gambling ads on kids and teens in Great Britain in its latest report.
The report highlighted that after being exposed to such content, one in four of the children polled acknowledged feeling tempted to spend money on gambling.
Sherbert Research and Social Finance conducted the study, which looked at the responses and behaviours of nationally and regionally representative groups of kids and teenagers.
GambleAware has since called for immediate government and regulatory action after describing the findings as proof that children are being exposed to gambling content at “unprecedented levels.”
Call for Stronger Advertising Restrictions
Two surveys were used in the research. 634 schoolchildren from the South West, South East, and West Midlands were polled in the first.
2,100 children between the ages of 11 and 17 participated in the second, larger survey, which was representative of the entire country. According to the results, 36% of 16 and 17-year-old boys had already gambled after witnessing a celebrity engage in or promote gambling.
Significant exposure levels were also noted, as 87% of respondents to the regional survey said they had come across gambling-related content online.
Moreover, 16% of respondents claimed to have seen gambling promotions from YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch content creators. 78% of participants agreed that children under the age of 18 shouldn’t be exposed to gambling advertising at all, and more than half said they had no control over the gambling content they saw online.
Of those, 67% of children polled supported a ban on influencers and celebrities endorsing gambling, demonstrating a strong opposition to celebrity gambling endorsements.
Furthermore, 16% of respondents said they had witnessed content creators sharing sign-up codes for gambling, and 14% said they had witnessed creators providing gambling advice.
GambleAware said the evidence supports greater restrictions on online content in the short term.
GambleAware’s outgoing CEO, Zoe Osmond, commented: “Digital technology has transformed how children and young people consume content… and this research shows that some [influencers] are playing a part in encouraging young people to gamble.”
The survey was released as GambleAware gets ready to shut down by March 2026 and hand over its responsibilities to the UK government under the new statutory levy system.
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