The Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) has announced that Safer Gambling Week 2024 achieved more than 60 million impressions across social media platforms.
Organised by the BGC, BACTA and the Bingo Association, this is the eighth year the Safer Gambling Week campaign has taken place, raising awareness about responsible gambling tools and resources available to players in land-based venues and online, kick-starting safer gambling conversations between staff, customers and their friends and family.
This year’s campaign, which took place between 18 and 24 November, had a 21% increase in impressions compared to the previous year, with engagement to raise awareness of safer gambling taking place across X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Several cross-party UK MPs, peers and shadow ministers also backed Safer Gambling Week, including Gambling Minister Baroness Fiona Twycross and Shadow DCMS Secretary Stuart Andrew MP.
The campaign was also supported by the UK Gambling Commission and its CEO Andrew Rhodes, in addition to several football clubs including Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton of the Premier League.
The BGC added that the Safer Gambling Week website also received more than half a million visits during the campaign, helping to provide advice on safer gambling tools such as deposit limits and time-outs and directing those who need help to the right resources.
“These outstanding and record-breaking results prove once more that our industry is serious about promoting the safer gambling tools available to customers and signposting the help and support available to those who need it,” commented Grainne Hurst, CEO of the BGC.
“Whilst we await the details on the number of people using safer gambling tools, past years have shown us that an increase in the number of social media impressions has led to an increase in the use of popular tools – like time-outs and deposit limits – that only exist in the regulated industry.
“Thanks to Safer Gambling Week, we can be confident millions of people are better informed about the ways they can safely enjoy their hobby, that’s something the entire industry can be proud of.
“As I said at the beginning of the week, our commitment to safer gambling is not just for one week of the year. It is our mission for every week of the year.”
Several other events took place during Safer Gambling Week to support the campaign, including the EGR Safer Gambling Forum and a live webinar from EPIC Global Solutions on problem gambling issues among women.
Recently, SBC held its SBC Digital – Player Protection Day, a one-day online conference presented in partnership with Vixio Regulatory Intelligence. Topics covered during the one-day event included player protection tools and software, safer gambling messaging, affordability checks, cross-operator collaboration and more.
