Spain

[ES] CAC proposes ban on gambling advertisements during watershed

IRIS 2018-3:1/10

Mònica Duran Ruiz

Catalan Audiovisual Council

On 10 January 2018, the Catalan Audiovisual Council (CAC) Board members passed unanimously Agreement 1/2018 in response to the request made by the Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations on the draft Royal Decree (906/2017) on commercial communications regarding activities involving gambling and “responsible gambling”.

The CAC is in favour of banning gambling and betting advertisements before the “watershed” - that is to say from 6:00am to 10:00pm. The Council also considers that it should be appropriate to eliminate the involvement of famous people in these kinds of commercial communications (including when these people are advising on responsible gambling); it also considers that access by minors to free games should be limited. Bonuses that incentivise gambling should also not be permitted.

The CAC considers that, given the repercussions that these activities may have (especially in respect of minors, young people and vulnerable people), special attention should be given to these groups in terms of pathological gambling as an addictive disorder and its impact on the public health.

The data indicates a very important growth in online gambling and a parallel increase in compulsive gambling arising from this phenomenon; it also indicates that the trend is aggravated by the fact that people take less time to develop an addiction when the gambling is online. In this regard, the CAC pointed out that it ordinarily takes between seven and ten years to develop a gambling addiction, but in the case of online games it only takes between one to two years. The result is that among people aged under twenty-six, online gambling is the main cause of gambling addiction.

It is noted that many of these advertisements are run during sports broadcasts, and consist of advertising online gambling and gambling operators. Specifically, according to a report by the CAC (18/2017), online gambling ads accounted for 45% of advertising during sports radio broadcasts, and 20% of football match advertising.