The BGC has announced that there will be a new edition of the IGRG Code, (the Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising) that all operators licensed by the Gambling Commission must follow.

The new code will come into force on 1 December and will include an extension of the:

1. rule which ensures that 20% of TV advertising is devoted to safer gambling messaging – this will now apply to advertising distributed via digital media channels too; and
2. social media targeting requirements to all digital platforms which offer age-filtering.

With the new targeting requirements, it will be interesting to see if any platforms have been able to demonstrate that they can be precisely targeted at those who are 18+. When the social media targeting rules were introduced, the requirement was that all sponsored or paid for social media ads must be targeted at those who are 25+ unless the platform had proof that its targeting was robust enough to exclude those under 18 years old. So far, only Facebook and Snapchat’s targeting parameters have been considered precise enough to exempt them from the heightened, 25+, targeting requirement.