New rules around gambling advertising do not go far enough, according to campaigners.

Under the updated standards, gambling companies will no longer be allowed to use celebs, sports stars or cartoon characters to attract young people to bet.

The Committees for Advertising Practice (CAP) said the new rules were about protecting children from irresponsible advertising.

But the Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Rev Alan Smith who leads on the issue of gambling for the Church of England said: "They haven't changed any actual rules, these are simply new guidelines and so far the gambling industry has shown itself either unwilling or incapable of self-regulation".

Coming into force from April 1, the rules will be enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority, but the ASA will not have any power to issue fines to companies who decide to ignore them.

The latest study by the Gambling Commission suggested 450,000 11-16 year-olds gamble on a regular basis with 55,000 classified as ‘problem gamblers’.

In summary, the new rules are:

• Gambling operators will have to ensure majority of audience of any social media influencers they work with are over 18

• Ban the use of animated and licensed characters from film and TV as well as celebs who appear to be under 25

• Care must be taken to ensure gambling ads don’t appear in children’s section of websites – such as young supporters’ pages for football clubs

CARE’s response

Responding to the story, CARE’s spokesperson James Mildred said: “There are hundreds of thousands of young people betting on a regular basis.

“This gambling epidemic is being fueled by irresponsible advertising and it is about time the industry was called to account.

“I’m not convinced, however that these new rules do anywhere near enough to truly address the scale of the problem.

“It is also astounding that the ASA will not be able to issue fines to companies who flout these new regulations. This raises questions about whether the new rules will be properly enforced.”

Find out more

Listen to CARE’s James Mildred discuss this issue on UCB here

Read more from the Bishop of St Albans and CARE’s James Mildred on Premier here

Follow updates on our ongoing work around problem gambling here