Researchers urge DCMS to extend gambling ad ban to licensed firms

The consortium backed an August 2027 start date but told DCMS it did not know whether the ban, as drafted, would reduce harm.

A public health research consortium has told the UK government that a sponsorship ban confined to unlicensed operators will not bring gambling harm down on its own. Local Health and Global Profits (LHGP) published its consultation response on 9 September 2026, the day the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) closed its eight-week consultation.

What the consortium asked for

The consultation, opened on 15 July 2026, proposes banning physical sponsorship and advertising by operators that do not hold a Gambling Commission licence. 

It covers:

• Kit sponsorship
• Stadium billboards
• Programmes and venue infrastructure across all sectors, rather than sport alone. 

A ban of this scope would affect gambling advertising and sports sponsorship across the market, not just the clubs with unlicensed shirt deals. 

LHGP told DCMS that the definition of physical advertising assets is clear enough. On scope, it picked the strongest option on the response form, which suggests that the ban should extend to online and digital platforms immediately. Specifically, it also asked that the ban cover the marketing of licensed operators.

Asked what the proposal, as drafted, would do to the prevalence and severity of gambling-related harm in Great Britain, the consortium answered that it did not know, in either case.

The balloon effect argument

The submission rests on what public health researchers call the balloon effect. 

When one marketing route is restricted, health-harming industries redirect spend into less regulated channels to keep profits level. 

LHGP expects operators to buy more licensed sponsorship in response to a ban aimed only at unlicensed firms, leaving total exposure intact. 

On that reading, harm falls only if the overall volume of gambling advertising falls, which is why the response asks DCMS to take in all forms of advertising, marketing, and sponsorship.

The evidence cited

LHGP puts UK gambling advertising spend at £1.5 billion a year, citing the 2020 House of Lords report, and says 60% of industry profits come from the 5% of people who already gamble at problem levels or are at risk of doing so. Almost a third of current gamblers reported that marketing had prompted their spending.

On exposure, it cites University of Bristol research that identified 27,440 gambling messages across the opening weekend of the Premier League, including 5,262 in a single match, which LHGP says equates to a third of the live broadcast carrying at least one gambling advert. 

Gambling Commission statistics for 2025 show that four in five young people recall seeing or hearing gambling adverts or promotions.

Where the licensed sector stands

The regulated industry has pushed the other way. The Betting and Gaming Council wants the ban extended to stop illegal firms sponsoring any sport in the UK, rather than widened to cover licensed operators.

Chief Executive Grainne Hurst framed the unlicensed market as a drain on both sport and the Treasury in August, saying:

‘These operators pay no tax, fund nothing and answer to no one. Every pound they take is a pound lost to British sport and to the Treasury.’

The trade body puts the regulated sector’s contribution at more than 109,000 jobs, £6.8 billion to the UK economy, and over £4 billion in tax a year, and argues that licensed firms already meet requirements on consumer protection, safer gambling, and financial safeguards that unlicensed ones ignore.

Timing

DCMS set out two implementation pathways. 

• The first is a fixed start date in August 2027, ahead of the 2027/28 football season, requiring all physical advertising to stop regardless of active contract lengths. 
• The second applies only to new contracts, letting existing deals run to a hard deadline in August 2028.

LHGP selected the first, arguing that the issue is urgent and the industry has a record of delaying policy.

Dr Nason Maani, Deputy Director of LHGP, said:

‘The gambling industry, like other health-harming industries before it, has a well-documented history of using delay and lobbying tactics to weaken or block regulation that threatens its commercial interests. Government must ensure the timeline for introducing this ban is not diluted or delayed by industry pressure.’

DCMS has not yet published its response to the consultation.

Why a wider ban faces resistance: Legal expert’s view 

Michael Clohisy, sports attorney and adviser at Quintel Intelligence, told European Gaming that the harms are real but that the expansion LHGP wants will be hard to deliver. 

He said more needs to be done to resolve the tension between public health research and industry influence, while warning that anything going beyond the unlicensed ban faces serious headwinds.

Clohisy said:

‘I suspect lawmakers in Parliament remain hesitant to institute a more expanded and/or blanket ban including “licensed” and online digital platforms due to enormous political, policy, and economic pressure from stakeholders and powerful lobbyists in sport (e.g., Premier League clubs), media, and especially gambling/sports betting who spend an estimated several billion annually.’

Clohisy also pointed to the Treasury’s stake in the outcome, noting that the industry pays billions in tax receipts including remote gaming duty: 

‘The fear is that banning advertising entirely would shrink those enormous tax yields the government relies on.’

He expects continued pressure from public health advocates on ‘the tightening of guardrails around online gambling advertising and the use of digital algorithms, dark patterns, and direct, aggressive marketing tactics especially profiling to target marketing at problem gamblers.’ 

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