Whether you notice it or not, gambling is exposed to us in our every-day lives. Far and wide, it can be seen on our televisions, social media, on the side of football pitches and in our streets as we silently consume some of this media, often without realising. Most of these adverts don’t discuss the harmful impacts gambling can have on a person.

In 2021, 72.4% of 18-24-year-olds reported seeing gambling ads on social media at least once a week, and further research shows that 6 out of 10 people see gambling adverts or sponsorships at least once a week. If you have been negatively impacted by gambling you might want to limit the number of ads you see.

We cannot prevent the production of gambling-related ads, but we can minimise the impact they have on our lives if we take action and limit our contact with them. 

 

To block or limit gambling ads online you can: 

·         Go onto your Google settings and limit the number of gambling ads you are exposed to as well as remove unwanted ads from their external page – you can block specific advertisers and mute similar ads by doing so

·         On Instagram, you can hide or stop gambling ads in the future by tapping the three dots in the banner of the ad and selecting “Hide ad” or “Not interested in this ad”

·         On Facebook, you can click the three dots in the top right-hand corner, choose “hide ad”, follow the on-screen instructions, and also head to setting to adjust your preferences

·         Betblocker is a software tool that can help block yourself from gambling advertisements and gambling sites

·         On Snapchat go to your settings, open up “additional services” and then “advert preferences”, in “advert preferences” untick the two options “audience-based” and “activity-based” which both relate to your preferences

·         On TikTok, go to the “campaign page” in TikTok Ads Manager, select the Campaign/Ad Group/ Ad tab, select the on/off switch button next to the campaigns, ad group, or ad you want to enable or disable