According to a new estimate, British gambling companies spent an “astronomical” £2bn ($2.63bn) on advertising and marketing last year, intensifying calls for the chancellor to increase taxes on the sector.
Bookmakers, online casinos and slot-machine makers used these funds for print and digital advertising as well as affiliate programmes, in which third parties are paid to bring players to specific operators.
Data from leading analytics group WARC shows that this figure far exceeds the £1.2bn ($1.58bn) raised for the Treasury from online casinos last year. Media sources note that the real advertising spend is likely hundreds of millions of pounds higher, as it is difficult to accurately account for all digital marketing costs.
This means the actual amount may be close to £2.5bn ($3.29bn) or even higher — roughly the same as the total collected last year from the sector’s three main taxes, including levies on slot machines and sports betting.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing pressure from think tanks, MPs and former prime minister Gordon Brown to raise taxes in the upcoming budget to help stabilise public finances.
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the industry body that strongly opposes such measures, challenged WARC’s estimate, claiming the industry spends around £1bn (about $1.32bn) on advertising.
This figure is far below the £1.5bn ($1.97bn) cited in 2018 by consultancy Regulus Partners, a firm trusted within the gambling sector.
As the chancellor weighs whether to raise gambling taxes — and by how much — the surge in advertising expenditure is fuelling calls to disregard industry warnings about potential consequences.
Meg Hillier, chair of the influential Treasury Committee, emphasised that the industry’s spending contradicts lobbyists’ claims — made during a sometimes tense hearing — that higher taxes could have catastrophic effects on jobs and the economy.
She noted: “Unfortunately, the fact that we are told the existence of gambling firms is on a financial knife-edge while they simultaneously plough billions into advertising does not come as a surprise.
“During our session with the BGC, we were warned that any increase in gambling taxation could lead to 40,000 job losses.
“It’s important that the government does not cave into this industry scaremongering.”
Alex Ballinger, a Labour MP who has campaigned for tougher regulation and taxation of gambling companies, said the £2bn figure was an “astronomic sum”.
“Perhaps gambling firms should think about cutting back on adverts that nobody wants to see before pushing back against paying fair taxes on their vast profits particularly given the harms they cause.”
Nevertheless, Alun Bowden, a leading gambling-sector analyst at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, warned that reducing advertising expenditure could lead to unintended consequences by strengthening the position of illegal operators in the UK market.
“Marketing spend is the main way to mitigate costs and would be the first thing to be cut [if taxes rise], but there is a reason for marketing spend in the first place,” he said.
“If you reduce advertising spend significantly then you give more parity to black market operators who are increasingly spending more on SEO, affiliates, streamers and social media.”
James McDonald, the director of intelligence at WARC, said: “The gambling sector has grown to become a significant force in the advertising market, spending more than industry stalwarts such as automotive and cosmetics in recent years.”
“While TV spend is a major focus, social media platforms are also core to the sector’s marketing strategy.”
Will Prochaska, the director of the Coalition to End Gambling Ads, said: “One would think that if the sector is asked to pay a bit more tax in the upcoming budget that they could cut back on their ad-spend rather than lay off all their employees in betting shops, or further reduce what they payout to customers, but that’s a choice for them.”
A BGC spokesperson said: “These claims are misleading as the betting and gaming industry spend on advertising, excluding lotteries, is around £1bn, and has actually declined over recent years.
Most importantly, 20% of all TV and digital ads are dedicated solely to safer-gambling messages — a voluntary commitment made by the UK industry.
Any further tax increases will simply push more consumers towards the growing black market, which does not conduct age checks, does not provide safer-gambling tools and does not pay taxes, while undermining the advertising spend that supports the regulated market. This market sustains more than 11,000 jobs, contributes £506m ($666m) to the UK economy, and allocates £138m ($182m) annually to support British sport through sponsorship.”
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