It’s a safe bet that responsible gambling advertising alone won’t be effective.

Today 4 gambling companies, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral and Paddy Power, advertised that they would be advertising “responsible gambling” from 1^st October with new campaigns in the new year.

The problem with advertising is that, because it is expensive, it can be mistaken for a serious attempt to address an issue. Too often it is used as a quick, visible and short-term tactic to address a problem rather than an important and integral part of an overall marketing strategy.  This action could be seen as a promising move for the protection of vulnerable customers such as children if the advertisements were just a small part of a committed and integrated action strategy to change culture and ethical behaviours across all four companies.

Undoubtedly the stakes are high for these companies following the outrage expressed by government and the public at their exploitation of the vulnerable in the last few years, resulting in changes which have decimated their profits. Maybe they are more sincere about deep-rooted change and only time will tell.  But it is highly improbable that their cultures have changed so quickly and if the advertisements are “it” without changes in the leadership vision, values and actions over the long-term (perhaps replacing Paddy Power’s so called “Head of Mischief” with "Head of Responsible Business" for example) it is a pretty safe bet that the actions will not help vulnerable customers; but they might just reduce some of the heat on the sector which is presumably their real game plan.