The UK Gambling Commission has shared details of the latest compliance marker which will be overseen by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), the sister organisation of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). This AI-based compliance monitoring platform is set to go live on 11 June.
In the UK, the ASA is the non-statutory regulator of the advertising industry. It is not funded by the Government and works on a self-funded basis through an advertising levy.
On 6 June, CAP published an enforcement notice making it clear to all operators that no content marketing should carry a strong appeal to minors under the age of 18.
Clear message sent to gambling operators
As part of the new compliance measure, an AI-based 'Active Ad Monitoring System' will be activated, in conjunction with social media platforms.
The instruction to operators was made clear in the notice from CAP: "If we identify ads that break the rules, we will require you to amend or remove the ad immediately and, if you fail to comply, we will impose sanctions, which may include referral to the platform hosting the ad and/or the Gambling Commission."
The unequivocal message, sent to all gambling operators, is that the authorities are watching and non-compliance will have consequences. That sentiment was echoed by a Gambling Commission spokesperson in a brief response to BonusFinder.
They did not elaborate on the enforcement actions that could be taken against offending operators that do not comply with initial warnings, but stressed that the new compliance check: "Is important because no content marketing should be of strong appeal to those under 18 years old, and if a gambling firm is found to be in serious or repeated breach of the rules we can take tough action, including issuing fines."
It is understandable that the regulator does not want to show its hand early, but it may need to eventually, if this initiative is to be successful and not just viewed as an empty deterrent.
How will the Active Ad Monitoring System work?
The Active Ad Monitoring System is comprised of three key components, as detailed by CAP:
- Ad capture at scale: The system captures ads from social media, search and display using a mix of public sources, our own internal monitoring tools and proprietary datasets.
- AI-based filtering: Machine learning models are configured to spot the ads that are most likely to be relevant to a given issue, or to have specific compliance problems.
- Expert review: Our experts can browse and search content related to their work via a web interface that allows them to quickly assess issues and identify problematic examples for action.
Operators will be expected to amend or immediately withdraw any live ads that are likely to hold a strong appeal to under-18s, and to take steps to avoid the same thing happening in future.
Essentially, all content marketing, including social media posts, should be socially responsible and compliant with the codes outlined by CAP.
A key pillar of this framework and the ethos of responsibility is underpinned by the need to protect children and young people, as well as other vulnerable persons.
