British gambling companies spent an “astronomic” £2bn [$2.6bn] on advertising and marketing last year, according to a new estimate that has intensified calls for the chancellor to increase taxes on the sector.
Bookmakers, online casinos and slot machine companies spent the sum through a mixture of print and digital promotions, as well as affiliate programmes, where third parties are paid to steer gamblers towards particular operators in return for a fee.
The figure, produced by the leading media insights group WARC, far outstrips the £1.2bn that the Treasury collected last year from online casino companies.
Media industry sources said the total spent on gambling advertising is likely to be hundreds of millions of pounds higher because it is difficult to accurately measure the actual amount of digital marketing spend.
