SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has apologised for posting a tweet last week which was criticised by some as inappropriate. 
Ahead of England’s World Cup game against France, the Commission published a tweet promoting its online register, encouraging customers to check before placing a bet whether the site they are using is a licensed, legal company.
The tweet included a gif of England football fans with children wearing national team facepaint prominently featured, and was viewed over 20,000 times.
The Commission has now issued a public apology for the tweet, which has itself been shared on twitter, and has deleted the original post.
“Throughout the World Cup we have been using social media to highlight how consumers can protect themselves when gambling online. In error one of those tweets featured a gif of a child celebrating at a football game,” the Gambling Commission statement read.
“We realise this was an oversight and undermined an important consumer protection message. We apologise to anyone who may have been offended by unintended association and have now deleted the tweet.”
A statement on our tweet published on Friday 9 December. pic.twitter.com/FaZUqfSCnT
— Gambling Commission (@GamRegGB) December 12, 2022
As gambling has a legal age of 18 and above in the UK, the Commission’s tweet had a lot of potential for controversy, perhaps especially given the forthcoming White Paper on the Gambling Act review.
Links between the betting industry and young people have been a common area of discussion throughout the duration of the review, which passed its second anniversary last week.
In particular, children’s exposure to betting via sports marketing has been a cause of concern for many gambling reform advocates, many of whom have supported restricting television advertising and an end to betting shirt sponsorship deals.
Meanwhile, operators have seen themselves face regulatory action for marketing towards children, whether intention or unintentional.
In September, Betway was charged £400,000 by the Commission after its brand was promoted on the children’s section of the webpage West Ham United FC, whom the firm maintain a sponsorship arrangement with.
