Should gambling adverts be banned?

[Duffers]

I said this last time this debate came up; non problem gamblers can and will still be able to gamble without gambling adverts but it will undoubtedly help stop problem gambling.

It's the positioning of it though. If you take the Ladbrokes campaign, for example, that shows a bunch of likely lads for whom betting is part of their Saturday routine (as it should be for you, of course) and the whole "which kind of gambler are you?" sory behind it. It's the normalization of it that sucks people in and with free bets aplenty the "gambling aware" thing is a complete and utter cop out. In fact, I'd go as far to say that it's actually malicious as it is 1) still an advert and 2) seems to imply that the firm is actually looking after you by not letting you bet too much. It's utter bollocks.

Like any addictive product the vast majority of income comes from a small percentage of addicts, same with alcohol. They're not interested in the bloke who has a fiver acca on a Saturday and maybe sticks a couple of quid on a big game. They want the poor sods who are hammering their weekly wages into their online casinos and all that rubbish.

Funnily enough South Park absolutely nailed it when talking about drink advertising, you can do what you want as long as you put a little warning at the end that makes it look like you care: