A cross-party group of UK lawmakers has published a report calling for a near-total overhaul of gambling advertising rules, including a 9pm broadcast watershed, a complete ban on online slot advertising, and the end of gambling sponsorship across most sports.
What the Report Proposes
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Reform and Peers for Gambling Reform (PGR) published the joint report on 24 April 2026 as part of a wider APPG inquiry into the future of gambling regulation in Great Britain. The proposals target every major marketing channel.
The report calls for a blanket prohibition on gambling sponsorship in sport, with a carve-out for horse and dog racing. It recommends ending content marketing and influencer-led promotion, which the report describes as formats where “advertising is often indistinguishable from content.” Influencers and content creators would be barred from promoting gambling across social media and streaming platforms including Twitch and Kick.
A ban on advertising the “most harmful” gambling products is also recommended, with online and land-based slots specifically named. The report calls for an end to cross-selling, direct marketing, and inducements including free bets, free spins and bet boosts. It also recommends that gambling advertising be prohibited in video games with a PEGI under-18 rating.
The report further calls on the government’s “Growing up in the online world” consultation to produce a statutory duty requiring online platforms to prevent under-18s from being exposed to gambling advertising, sponsorship and marketing.
The Advertising Spend Dispute
The report puts total industry advertising and marketing spend at between £1.5bn and £2bn annually, framing that level of investment as evidence of a deliberate strategy to normalise gambling among young people. The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) disputed those figures, citing independent WARC analysis suggesting that between £800m and £900m of the total is attributable to illegal, unregulated operators outside the licensed UK market.
University of Bristol research published in October 2025, cited in the report, found that gambling marketing messages during Premier League broadcasts tripled from 10,999 to 27,440 between 2023 and 2025, despite the introduction of a football-wide Code of Conduct.
The report also highlighted Stake.com’s sponsorship of Everton as an example of how unlicensed operators can reach audiences heavily skewed toward children and young adults while operating outside UKGC oversight.
Industry Position
The BGC argued that the proposals would have significant consequences for sport funding. “Advertising and sponsorship are a critical part of the media and sport ecosystem,” the body said. “£138m is spent by gambling operators on sports sponsorship a year which is relied upon across levels of sport — from elite to grassroots.” The BGC also noted that a ban on front-of-shirt Premier League gambling sponsorships is already due to come into force next season, and pointed to recently implemented restrictions on cross-selling and bonus wagering requirements as evidence that reform is already under way.
Horse and greyhound racing would face the most significant operational exposure. Even with the proposed carve-out for those sports, a pre-9pm advertising watershed and tighter limits on content-led promotion could reduce betting engagement and compress the value of sponsorship deals. Racing broadcasters depend heavily on bookmaker advertising, live odds display, and integrated in-broadcast promotion. A reduction in that revenue would affect prize money and funding across the sport.
Political and Regulatory Context
Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, co-chair of the APPG on Gambling Reform, said daily life was “totally saturated” with gambling advertising. Alex Ballinger MP, his fellow co-chair, said the evidence that early exposure increases the risk of harm later in life was clear and could not continue unchecked.
“For too long, the balance has been tilted in favour of permissive advertising rather than effective protection. The sheer volume and sophistication of gambling marketing, particularly online, means that children and those suffering harm are being exposed in ways that existing regulations simply do not address. If we are serious about preventing further harm, we must now significantly change the rules.” — Don Foster, Baron Foster of Bath, Chair, Peers for Gambling Reform
The report frames the UK as lagging behind other jurisdictions, citing tighter legislative initiatives in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Australia. That comparison carries some complexity: Dutch GGR channelisation fell below 50% in the first half of 2025, raising questions about whether stricter advertising restrictions in mature markets drive consumers toward unlicensed operators rather than reducing gambling participation.
The BGC has made the same point in the UK context, warning that overly restrictive regulation risks pushing consumers toward unregulated operators that offer no protections and contribute no tax revenue. The APPG report acknowledges the illegal operator threat, recommending that the government and UKGC work with social media platforms to prevent unlicensed operators from advertising to UK consumers.
The report sits within a longer legislative process. Baroness Twycross, the UK minister for gambling, has stated her intention to continue reforms that improve consumer protection, though no timeline for government response to the APPG recommendations has been set. The UK’s confirmed gambling tax increases — online casino to 40% and sports betting to 25% — are already compressing operator margins, adding commercial context to any further restrictions on marketing spend. Evoke has warned that the combination of tax hikes and tighter regulation risks accelerating black market growth.
The government’s response to the report, and whether it chooses to legislate on any of the APPG’s recommendations, will be the key indicator of how far this reform cycle goes.
Source: All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Reform / Peers for Gambling Reform
