Background
Gambling is increasingly recognised as an important public health problem that may cause significant health and social [
1‐
6] harms for individuals, their families, and communities. Every year, over 400,000 Australian adults experience or are at risk of experiencing harm from gambling [
7]. Importantly, for every person that develops harm from gambling products or services, up to ten others are also negatively impacted [
7]. Researchers now estimate that the harms associated with gambling are now on a par with other major public health issues, such as alcohol and major depression [
8].
While gambling is not traditionally seen as a consumption activity that may pose significant risks for young people (as compared to other similar activities such as alcohol consumption), research suggests that young people are at increased risk of harmful patterns of gambling as compared to adults [
9‐
11]. Australian research shows that about half of all young people will have participated in gambling by 15 years of age, with about three-quarters participating by the age of 19 [
12,
13]. Some studies suggest that about 4.0 % of Australian adolescents experience harm from gambling [
14,
15], although it is important to note that these studies pre-date the newer forms of gambling, such as online sports wagering. Despite these figures, there is still very limited understanding of young people’s pathways into gambling. Researchers suggest that there may be a range of individual, socio-cultural and environmental factors that may lead to young people’s first experiences with gambling, and may lead some young people to be at increased risk of developing harm with gambling [
16]. However, very limited research has explored how gambling industry tactics, such as marketing and the alignment of gambling with culturally valued activities such as sport, may influence young people’s gambling beliefs and consumption intentions [
17,
18].
While most gambling products are available in land based environments, concerns have been raised about the growing number of gambling options that are provided via online environments, such as sports based wagering [
19]. Wagering is the only form of gambling in Australia to have shown an increase in participation rates in the last decade, and is particularly appealing to young adults. For example in 2014, 10.56 % of 18–24 year olds, and 8.25 % of 25–34 year olds participated in sports and events wagering in the state of Victoria [
20]. There may be a number of reasons for this increase in participation, including the ease and 24/7 accessibility of online gambling products, the competitive marketing environment for wagering products on both traditional and social media channels, the lack of a comprehensive regulatory environment for the marketing of wagering products, and the alignment of bookmakers with Australia’s elite sporting codes.
Standard Media Index (SMI) figures from 2011 to 2015 indicate a 160 % increase in advertising spend on gambling (and predominantly sports wagering) in Australia, with $236 million spent on advertising in 2015 [
21]. While television advertising for some gambling products (such as Electronic Gambling Machines) is prohibited, there are comparatively very few restrictions relating to the marketing for sports and event wagering in Australia [
22]. In 2008, after a High Court ruling in favour of bookmaker Betfair Pty Ltd, registered bookmakers were able to be registered in one part of Australia, while promoting their products in another [
22]. Most of Australia’s bookmakers are registered in the Northern Territory, which has caps on taxation, and significantly fewer restrictions on the range of promotional tactics (such as incentives and inducements) that may be used by wagering companies to market their products [
23]. While some states and territories prohibit some of these specific promotional strategies, they are still able to be promoted throughout Australia, with ‘fine print’ terms and conditions statements informing customers that the promotion is unavailable in their particular state.
While there is a broad national Australian Commercial Television Code of Practice [
24] that details a range of requirements that gambling advertisements need to meet, these requirements have been criticised for not adequately addressing the content of gambling advertisements. For example, while the Code states that gambling advertisements must be socially responsible, must not contain children, must not make gambling appear to be a way of success or achievement, and must contain a statement relating to ‘responsible gambling’ or help services for problem gambling [
24], there is very limited specific detail beyond this. There are also few regulations specific to promotions on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, with bookmakers regularly using social media sites during matches to provide live commentary based updates on sporting matches, memes, cartoons and funny videos, alongside prompts to bet [
25]. Furthermore, there are significant inadequacies relating to the timing of wagering advertising. While the Code stipulates that gambling advertisements are not allowed to be played on television during the ‘watershed’ which replicates children’s viewing hours (4–7 pm), significant loopholes within these regulations means that gambling advertisements are able to be played during the ‘watershed’ if they are within a news, current affairs or sports program [
24].
There are also very few restrictions relating to sponsorship relationships between gambling companies and sporting codes. Online bookmakers and casinos have sought to establish alignment with Australia’s elite sporting codes via multi-million dollar sponsorship relationships. While exact monetary figures are rarely disclosed, media reports have suggested a $50 million sponsorship deal between the Australian Football League (AFL) and official gambling partner Crown Bet [
26], and a $60 million sponsorship deal between Sportsbet.com.au and the National Rugby League (NRL) [
27]. The marketing impact of these sponsorship deals is clearly demonstrated in match based marketing outside of formal television advertisements, including signage around the ground, wagering and casino company logos on match jumpers, and score board advertisements [
22,
28]. Sponsorship deals also have an impact on customer sign ups to bookmaker accounts. For example, after a reported $5 million sponsorship deal with the Australian Open tennis tournament, William Hill chief executive James Henderson stated that the partnering had led to
“record customer acquisition rates” with a reported 1000 customer sign ups per day during the 2 week event [
29].
Despite some policy efforts aimed at curbing sports wagering marketing during sporting matches [
24], it has been argued that the ‘gamblification’ of sport means it is now almost impossible to avoid the marketing of sports wagering products whilst watching professional sport [
22,
30]. Similar to the arguments made about the regulation of tobacco out of sport, researchers argue that there is an ethical tension that exists when sport is heavily marketed as being a ‘family friendly’ activity (and is watched by significant numbers of adolescents) [
28], but also contains significant promotions for gambling products that may be ultimately harmful for young people. This is primarily because of the positive associations young people form between products and brands that are associated with sport.
Tobacco control researchers clearly demonstrated that the promotion of tobacco during sport had a significant impact on young peoples “
subconscious positive associations” between tobacco and sport [
31] [pg. 499]. This included young people’s awareness of cigarette brands, and their subsequent consumption preferences for these brands [
32]. Similar normalisation trajectories have been shown in young people’s brand awareness of gambling products and companies that sponsor or are advertised during sport. For example, studies suggest that young people demonstrate both brand recall and preference for gambling products that are aligned with sporting teams and codes [
33], and state that one of the environments in which they most see marketing for wagering is during sporting matches [
18]. A recent study also suggested that young people who are fans of particular sporting codes – in particular the AFL and NRL – may have a higher awareness of wagering promotions than children who follow other sports (such as soccer) [
18]. What is less clear from existing research is detailed information about how young people perceive the relationship between gambling and sport. Furthermore, very limited research explores parents’ perceptions of the promotion of gambling within sport.
Discussion and implications for public health
This exploratory study provides information about the range of factors that may influence how young people may interpret and apply the messages that they see about gambling during sport. The study aimed to understand: 1) How adolescents and their parents describe the relationship between gambling and sport, and the factors that may influence these perceptions; 2) How adolescents interpret the messages they see about gambling during sport; and 3) Whether there is evidence to suggest that adolescents are starting to view sport through a ‘gambling lens’.
The findings from this study raise a number of points for discussion.
First, adolescents and parents in this study were aware of the increasing alignment of gambling and sport. Most commonly, this perception was related to the promotion of gambling products within sporting matches. While a range of gambling products and services are promoted during sporting matches – including casinos, keno, and lotteries – the type of gambling that was referred to the most by participants in this study were promotions for sports wagering. This is perhaps unsurprising given that researchers have highlighted the saturation of promotions for these products in sporting matches – both during traditional commercial break advertising, and embedded within match play via promotions such as logos on jumpers, signage at the ground, pop ups, and tickers [
22,
28]. Studies have also shown that children are able to recall and link sports wagering and gambling companies with specific sporting teams and codes [
17,
33], have a high unprompted recall of gambling brands [
17,
18], and can recall and describe seeing advertisements during sport for specific sports wagering companies [
18]. This study contributes to these previous studies by demonstrating that adolescents have an awareness of promotions outside of traditional commercial break advertising, that they are able to describe the content of these specific promotional tactics, as well as the timing or placement of these promotions during sporting matches. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that adolescents perceived that the use of current and ex-athletes in either the implicit or implied endorsement of gambling products is a particularly influential tactic in aligning gambling with sport. Research from other public health issues has shown the influence that celebrities and athletes can have on adolescent’s uptake of behaviours and attitudes towards harmful products [
40,
41]. Further research should explore whether the endorsement of gambling products by current or ex-athletes plays a role in positively shaping young peoples’ gambling beliefs, brand preferences and consumption intentions.
Second, while gambling companies repeatedly argue that adolescents are not the target of their promotions [
42], and that parents should be responsible for educating their children about gambling, this study suggests that parents are increasingly concerned about the excessive promotion of, in particular, wagering advertising in sport. Our findings suggest that parents may feel that they are unable to counter the persuasiveness and volume of promotions for gambling, particularly when they are aligned with concepts associated with supporting your team or fan loyalty. While those involved in the promotion of gambling products in sport (including sporting codes, broadcasters and the gambling industry) have done little to address these concerns, public health practitioners should aim to work with parents to ensure that their opinions and concerns are regularly heard by these agencies, and to advocate for change [
43]. Further research should more comprehensively investigate the range of possible regulatory responses to gambling advertising within sports-based programming to ensure that this type of marketing does not negatively influence vulnerable populations. While the most obvious way forward is to close regulatory loopholes, which allow gambling to be advertised within children’s viewing hours if they are within sporting matches [
22], this study suggests that policy makers should consider how they expand regulatory frameworks to encompass a wider range of promotions that may occur outside of traditional commercial break advertising. One idea, as suggested in limiting the exposure of alcohol marketing to children, may be to develop an audience threshold for promotions, whereby gambling promotions are banned or significantly restricted if the number of young people in an audience is over a certain number or percentage of the viewing audience [
44]. It is important that these initiatives are developed independently of those companies or organisations that may have a commercial interest in the promotion of gambling products. Tobacco control also provides an important historical template for public health policy makers to follow. By 1976 direct tobacco advertising was banned in Australia, with further bans occurring during the 1990’s to restrict the sponsorship of sport by the tobacco industry [
45]. It is widely regarded that this approach, as part of a comprehensive approach specifically targeting all advertising mechanisms, contributed to a decrease in the uptake and prevalence rates for smoking [
45,
46].
Third are the messages that adolescents interpret from the gambling promotions they see within sport. Adolescents in this study interpreted the messages about sports wagering, as being easy, accessible, and fun. Research from other gambling product advertising (such as lotteries) have also shown that the messages of winning and that gambling is easy, are recalled and viewed positively by children and adolescents [
47,
48]. Derevensky and colleagues (2010) described that these types of promotions are influential in young people’s reasons for wanting to engage in gambling [
48]. While our study did not specifically explore the impact of these promotions on consumption intentions, this is an important area for future consideration. This should include understanding how promotions that highlight the role of technology may influence gambling consumption intentions in young people.
Finally, parents were particularly concerned about promotions that implied that gambling was part of supporting a team. Marketing techniques, which aim to embed sports wagering as a ritual within sport may have an influence on children’s ability to recall gambling brands and their brand preference [
17,
18,
33]. While there is an assumption that adolescents are generally able to understand the persuasive intent of marketing (in this case that marketing for gambling is encouraging individuals to gamble) [
49], adolescents struggle to identify ‘odds’ announcements as marketing techniques used to encourage gambling, with some seeing it as information about the potential outcome of a game. This raises questions about whether discourses from the gambling industry which seek to embed gambling as an inherent part of sport, are shaping young people’s attitudes towards gambling. Language is a factor that plays a significant role in the shifting of social norms, particularly relating to the consumption of unhealthy products [
50,
51]. There were some indications in this study that young people’s discourses about sport increasingly involve discussions about gambling, and in particular gambling ‘odds’. Further research should explore the range of mechanisms that may be contributing to a normalisation trajectory of gambling as an inherent and accepted part of the sporting experience, and whether some groups of young people may be particularly influenced by specific mechanisms.
It is important to acknowledge the study limitations. Firstly, this is an exploratory study, and the study findings cannot claim to represent the attitudes and opinions of all adolescents who watch sport and their parents. The study did not aim to provide a representative sample of all Australian households, but to generate a range of attitudes and opinions about gambling. A further limitation of this study was that the parental sample was skewed towards mothers. Given that men more frequently participate in gambling on sport, it may be that a larger sample of fathers may have yielded different results. The exclusion of non-English speaking participants is also a limitation. Finally, given that this is a new area of discussion for many young people and their parents, we used advertising materials to prompt discussion about some very specific forms of marketing, such as ‘odds’ announcements. Future research should also seek to examine unprompted or implicit awareness and interpretation of these types of promotions.