Displaying items by tag: advertising

Last year you prayed for justice for a Franklin Graham event after posters for Graham’s ‘Time For Hope’ event were banned from Blackpool buses. Nevertheless, thousands heard him speak at the town's Winter Gardens, and hundreds responded to his altar call. Blackpool council refused the posters because of concerns that he would incite hatred because of past comments he had made about Islam and homosexuality. This week the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was awarded over £100,000 in damages as the council said they accepted the advertisements were not offensive, and in removing them they did not take into account that this caused offence to other members of the public. They also regretted they did not consult with the organisers before taking their decision.

In November 2018 we prayed for the Government to take the dangers of child problem gamblers seriously and make changes. New rules will come into force from 1 April. However Bishop Alan Smith, who has brought up the gambling issue in the House of Lords, said, ‘They haven't changed any actual rules, these are simply new guidelines. So far the gambling industry has shown itself either to be unwilling or incapable of self-regulation. We need to ensure that there are proper sanctions for the existing rules. When you look at other industry regulators - such as Ofcom - they not only have very great powers but they are able to fine people who transgress.’ The Christian lobby group CARE recently helped to fight for a reduced maximum stake at fixed-odd betting terminals, something the Government decided to adopt last year.

An audit by the Gambling Commission issued on 21 November has shown the quadrupling of child problem gamblers to more than 50,000 in two years. It also found 70,000 youngsters were at risk, and 450,000 children bet regularly - the equivalent of one in seven children aged 11 to 16. Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans, branded the figures as a ‘generational scandal’, and warned that the UK needs to take the dangers of gambling seriously. The audit also showed that children were being inundated with gambling adverts, with two-thirds saying they had ‘seen it on TV’, and nearly a million young people had been exposed to gambling through ‘loot boxes’ in video games or on smartphone apps. See also our recent article on FOBTs: https://www.prayer-alert.net/praise-reports-pa-site/item/11186-uk-government-backs-down-over-gambling-machines

The CofE has called for a ban on betting adverts before the 9pm watershed, in a bid to tackle the growing ‘moral crisis’ facing children and young people. Rev Alan Smith said, ‘There is a lot of evidence that young people are seeing extraordinary levels of advertising, which is normalising and socialising gambling. That is a moral issue, one which we as a society need to stand back and reflect about. We will reap a terrible harvest if gambling is “normalised” for children and young people.’ The Church is calling for social media giants to take greater responsibility. According to official figures, children see an average of 185 gambling adverts a year, and one in five adverts broadcast across 25 British football matches are for betting firms. The world has changed dramatically, with a huge rise in gambling adverts on every sort of media.