News & Media

SARG Research Associate Ellen McGrane presented research on the links between gambling marketing and behaviour at a recent event on the role local authorities play in creating healthier local environments.

Shaping Public Spaces: Local Authority Action on Advertising, held at Northumbria University on 25 March 2025, focused on the links between the marketing of unhealthy products and behaviours, and the role local authorities play in regulating advertising within their communities.

Ellen addressed the growing concerns surrounding gambling marketing and its impact on public health. Her presentation provided an overview of the behavioural impacts of gambling advertisements, with insights gained from her systematic umbrella review of the evidence – a study which won the prestigious Public Health Journal Paper of the Year award.

Research findings on advertising policies and gambling-related harms

Ellen presented research findings that consistently demonstrate a connection between gambling advertising and increased positive attitudes towards gambling, greater intentions to gamble, and increased gambling activity, including frequency, expenditure and spending more money than intended. This effect is amplified with increased exposure to advertising, demonstrating a dose-response relationship.  

Ellen's presentation also highlighted the impact of gambling advertising on vulnerable groups, particularly children and young people, who are highly exposed to gambling marketing and demonstrate a high recall of gambling brands. The advertising can normalise gambling for young people and potentially influence them to start betting.

She concluded that restrictions on gambling advertising could reduce overall harm and potentially mitigate the impact of advertising on gambling-related inequalities.

About the event

The event was aimed at anyone with an interest in creating healthier public spaces including public health teams, policymakers, community groups and members of the public. The day's programme also included talks on the scale of marketing in public areas and what local authorities can do about it, the links between food and alcohol marketing and behaviour, and a local authority case study of developing and adopting an advertising policy.

About Fuse

Fuse is a virtual centre spanning six universities in the North East and North Cumbria including Durham, Cumbria, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside. Its mission is to transform health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities through the conduct of world-class public health research and its translation into value-for-money policy and practice.