United Kingdom
[GB] New Rules for Broadcast Gambling Advertisements
IRIS 2007-5:1/15
David Goldberg
deeJgee Research/Consultancy
The Gambling Act 2005 is due to come fully into force on 1 September 2007. The Act, for the first time, provides for licences for “…remote gambling” (Section 67). There is also a new regime for broadcast advertisements for gambling (Part 16).
If the operators are based in the UK, an operating licence must be obtained “to authorise the provision of gambling via remote communication e.g. via interactive television or the Internet”.
Further, new rules concerning gambling advertising in the UK have been announced by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP). These rules are a consequence of the fact that the Gambling Act “makes provision for the advertising of gambling - creating new offences relating to the advertising of unlawful gambling and providing reserve powers for the Secretary of State to make regulations controlling the content of gambling advertisements”.
The BCAP TV Standards Advertising Code and Radio Standards Advertising Code, Articles 11.6 and 11.10 and Section 2 Rule 23 respectively, have been amended to reflect the changed regime.
Spread betting Rules (TV Section 9 and radio Section 3 Rule 1) are also changed. Also, the Rules on the Scheduling of TV and Radio Advertisements (Section 4, Rule 4.2.1 and Section 2 Rule 8 respectively) have been amended.
References
- Gambling Act 2005
- http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2005/20050019.htm
- CAP and BCAP Gambling Advertising Rules and BCAP Spread Betting Rules
- http://www.cap.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/8C9D2140-EE00-424F-9E67-CE1914B3DA71/0/FINALCAPBCAPGamblingRules.pdf
- Department for Culture Media and Sport, gambling dossier
- http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/Gambling_racing/
This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.