Gambling ads’ lasting effects on 8 in 10 kids

EIGHT in ten children aged as young as eight remember seeing gambling adverts on television – even though it is illegal to target them, a study has revealed.

Many youngsters also said they had seen brands while watching sport and, in particular, on football shirts.

Half of the children surveyed said they remembered seeing bookmakers’ branding on a computer or smartphone – the same as the proportion of adults.

The figures showed young children absorbed the messages in gambling adverts that lead to betting being normalised in sport, said researchers.

One boy of eight told researchers: ‘I like gambling. I want to win money.’

A 13-year- old added: ‘It’s normal for under-18s to bet with friends. I put £2 on Man U with other young people.’

The brands most readily recalled by children were Bet365 and Betway.

Rules to remove gambling ads from sport need to be put in place, researchers added, as was done with tobacco.

Study co-author Dr Rebecca Cassidy, from Goldsmiths University in London, which carried out the study, said: ‘Disordered gambling is a behavioural addiction. It creates cravings, tolerance, withdrawal, as well as changes to the brain.’

The study questioned 99 children from south London, and 71 parents and guardians. Seventy- one children were aged eight to eleven and 28 were 12 to 16.

A third of children were able to match three or more gambling companies to the football club they sponsored.

The Mail has been campaigning to tighten regulations around advertising to protect vulnerable customers.

A voluntary whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling ads during live sport will start this summer although critics are concerned most marketing cash is spent online.

This week, the Advertising Standards Authority found children as young as six were being targeted by major online gambling operators. It uncovered more than 150 incidents of adverts targeting users on 11 children’s websites over two weeks.

In addition, more than half of gambling adverts shown around 16 live televised football matches fell outside the whistleto-whistle period, a Mail audit found.

The study follows the introduction of a tough new gambling law this week, which slashed the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals from £100 to £2.