Gambling Commission teams up with Facebook

By Simon Wright, Last updated Feb 15, 2021

The UK Gambling Commission have today announced that they have partnered with the social media company Facebook, with a view to providing guidance aimed at helping consumers limit gambling related adverts on the platform.

Included in the guidance are details as to how Facebook’s safety tools and settings can be adjusted by users of Facebook, to control what is or is not displayed in an individual user’s Facebook newsfeed. It is therefore hoped that by providing this guidance, it will subsequently help to mitigate the risk of exposure to gambling-related messaging and advertisements.

This joint incentive between Facebook and the UKGC has come about after the Gambling Commission earlier this year issued an ‘advertising technology challenge’ to the gambling industry earlier this year.

Commenting on the news, the UK Gambling Commission’s Chief Executive, Neil McArthur said: “Protecting children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling is at the heart of what we do, which is why I challenged the industry to look at how they can make better use of technology to prevent gambling-related content and adverts being seen by those individuals.”

“Partnering with Facebook to produce this guidance is a welcome step for us in order to offer consumers clear, practical advice, and I hope that this will help them limit the gambling-related content they see when using the platform.”

Rick Kelley, Vice President of Global Gaming at Facebook, added: “Facebook is committed to supporting a safe and transparent environment for people to control their experiences on our platform. We’re delighted that our partnership with the Gambling Commission will help operators to implement advertising campaigns responsibly, while helping to protect the people who use our services.”

You can view the entire Facebook consumer guide here.

In 2019, the Gambling Commission partnered with Twitter to produce a similar guidance for users.

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