TY - JOUR
T1 - Gambling Games on Social Platforms
T2 - How Do Advertisements for Social Casino Games Target Young Adults?
AU - Abarbanel, Brett
AU - Gainsbury, Sally M.
AU - King, Daniel
AU - Hing, Nerilee
AU - Delfabbro, Paul H.
PY - 2017/6
Y1 - 2017/6
N2 - Social casino gaming, which simulates gambling games on social platforms, has become increasingly popular and is rapidly merging with the gambling industry. Advertisements for social casino games, however, are not bound by the same regulations as real money gambling, despite their similarities. We performed a content analysis of a sample of 115 unique social casino gaming advertisements captured by young adults during their regular Internet use. The results showed that the advertisement imagery typically featured images likely to appeal to young adults, such as bright colors, character images of young adults, cartoon animal characters, gambling and sporting activities, references to popular culture, and references to Las Vegas. Latent and manifest message themes included glamorization of gambling, winning, normalization of gambling, play for free, and a general encouragement to play. Notably, nearly 90 percent of the advertisements contained no responsible or problem gambling language, despite the gambling-like content. As young people are receptive of messages that encourage gambling, we recommend that gaming companies recognize the potential harms of advertisements and embrace corporate social responsibility standards. This includes adding warning messages to advertisements for gambling-themed games and ensuring that marketing messages do not encourage excessive gambling.
AB - Social casino gaming, which simulates gambling games on social platforms, has become increasingly popular and is rapidly merging with the gambling industry. Advertisements for social casino games, however, are not bound by the same regulations as real money gambling, despite their similarities. We performed a content analysis of a sample of 115 unique social casino gaming advertisements captured by young adults during their regular Internet use. The results showed that the advertisement imagery typically featured images likely to appeal to young adults, such as bright colors, character images of young adults, cartoon animal characters, gambling and sporting activities, references to popular culture, and references to Las Vegas. Latent and manifest message themes included glamorization of gambling, winning, normalization of gambling, play for free, and a general encouragement to play. Notably, nearly 90 percent of the advertisements contained no responsible or problem gambling language, despite the gambling-like content. As young people are receptive of messages that encourage gambling, we recommend that gaming companies recognize the potential harms of advertisements and embrace corporate social responsibility standards. This includes adding warning messages to advertisements for gambling-themed games and ensuring that marketing messages do not encourage excessive gambling.
KW - advertising
KW - content analysis
KW - gambling
KW - policy development
KW - social casino
KW - youth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84988838439&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/poi3.135
DO - 10.1002/poi3.135
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84988838439
SN - 1944-2866
VL - 9
SP - 184
EP - 209
JO - Policy and Internet
JF - Policy and Internet
IS - 2
ER -