Restrictions on betting ads are increasingly becoming “the norm” across Europe in response to public health concerns, according to a report from gambling charity GambleAware.

But advertising was left out of a white paper on gambling regulation published by the previous government in 2023 and Labour has yet to specify its plans. GambleAware claims UK had the most “lenient” regulation on gambling ads among comparable markets in Europe, citing Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The report says survey data suggests that two-thirds of people think there is too much gambling advertising, with even more supporting tougher curbs on social media (74 per cent) and TV (72 per cent).

In the absence of rerstrictions, the charity wants the government to introduce mandatory smoking-style health warnings on marketing. The previous government said it could not impose new restrictions on advertising owing to a lack of evidence that the promotion of gambling leads to harm.

Dr Raffaello Rossi, the report author and a marketing researcher at the University of Bristol, said: “Our research shows that Great Britain has the strongest evidence of the gambling marketing’s harms but some of Europe’s fewest restrictions. This suggests that the lack of tight restrictions isn’t due to insufficient evidence but, rather, a lack of political will.”

The Betting and Gaming Council, said: “This report is a work of advocacy, not academia, based on misused statistics and we do not recognise its findings or its conclusions.”