What are the odds on this?
THE Labour Party recently announced that – on getting into power - it would ban betting companies from advertising on football shirts, which is a move we should all get behind.
Last week, anticipating a government review of gambling being released in November,
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson pledged to stop gambling businesses, from marketing using football kits – if the FA didn’t first.
Betting companies are expanding aggressively in the UK; their logos are getting airtime on international TV and are caught in photos sent across the world.
They’re flashed on billboards around stadia, and games on the telly are sandwiched between their adverts.
This worries Watson.
“Football has to play its part in Britain’s hidden epidemic of gambling addiction,” he said.
The Government’s Gambling Commission revealed that almost half of all adults in the UK bet, and almost two million are addicted, or ‘at risk’.
This is concerning, but I’m especially anxious of young people, who are the most vulnerable.
Many of us will too eagerly snap up the latest kit, play FIFA, and – depending on our age - swap trading cards.
This gives us a big over-exposure to gambling and gaming companies, encouraging the wrong impression of these profit-centred businesses.
“After all, if Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero, and Harry Kane are showcasing these sponsors, then they must be morally good businesses”. This is the subconscious train of thought that runs through our minds, making us far more susceptible than adults to entering a betting shop with a pocket-full, and walking out penniless (but unable to resist going back again).
The FA has terminated its own deals with betting sponsors (most notably bet365), but the 2005 Gambling Act – created by Labour, ironically – means that Betfair, Coral, and Ladbrokes still dominate our screens, and overwhelm us with why it’s OK to lose thousands of pounds in their shops, even – especially – if we’re younger.
The industry earned £13.8 billion last year. I think they can afford a loss in publicity.