The department has launched a prevention campaign which highlights the dangers of online sports betting.
“Big bet, big loss, big hassle», «Back to the daronne»: the slogans mark the spirits. A few days before the start of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the department of Seine-Saint-Denis decided to raise awareness of the dangers of online sports betting, by hijacking the slogans of one of the main market players. , Winamax. A prevention campaign was thus launched on Monday by the county council on social networks, structured around these two shock phrases. It will also be displayed on the bus shelters of the department “a little later during the World“, we know, as well as in other public places.
The timing was not chosen at random. If the market for online sports betting has been growing steadily in recent years, it is during major football events that stakes explode. The World Cup in Qatar, which starts on Sunday, “will be that of all the excesses, and also of the explosion of bets on the internet“, anticipates Stéphane Troussel, president (PS) of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis. This is based on the forecasts of the National Gaming Authority (ANJ), according to which at least 530 million euros should be bet online during the 2022 World Cup. That is 44% more than during the previous World Cup. world in 2018 and 22% more than during Euro 2021.
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It is no coincidence either that this initiative was launched in Seine-Saint-Denis. “It is clear that the operators’ very aggressive advertising campaigns use slogans, vocabulary, imagery, visuals which may be those of working-class neighborhoods, young“, points out Stéphane Troussel. In other words, these operators, Winamax, Unibet or Betclic in the lead, target particularly vulnerable and ubiquitous population categories in Seine-Saint-Denis, “youngest and most popular department in metropolitan France», Estimates Stéphane Troussel.
“I do not accept that we make the inhabitants, and young people in particular, understand that we could improve our situation by betting a lot of money“, he criticizes. While some experienced bettors manage to make money from this activity, or even make a living from it, losses are much more common, and growing. According to the ANJ, in 2021, they reached 1.3 billion euros, or 40% more than in 2020. “One in four young gamers have borrowed money or sold an item to continue playing“, adds Stéphane Troussel, taking up a result of a survey carried out in 2021 by the SEDAP association (Society for mutual aid and psychological action) for the ANJ. The risk of addiction is also present, warn psychologists for a long time.
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If the campaign of the department has a prevention objective, it aims more broadly to put a spotlight on the practices of online betting operators, and to demand stricter regulation. “Compared to other European countries, France has very lax legislation in this area“says Stéphane Troussel. The departmental elected official cites the examples of Italy, which has banned all advertising in this area, of Spain, which has prohibited it on the internet and limited to television and radio, or even of the United Kingdom, which prohibits top athletes and influencers from associating their name with brands in this sector.
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“Getting this jungle in order”
Beyond advertising, Stéphane Troussel calls for global regulations, in particular on welcome offers or gambling for minors, which is nevertheless prohibited but widespread – more than a third of 15-17 year olds questioned in 2021 say they have already bet. “Faced with these operators without faith or law, we must put order in this jungle», Estimates Stéphane Troussel. Powerful companies moreover, since the department’s campaign was refused by a poster, present in two shopping centers in Seine-Saint-Denis, on the grounds that he had a contract with Winamax, relates the socialist.
The latter is preparing to write to parliamentarians to invite them to take up the subject. “I am convinced that, given the echo of our campaign, parliamentarians will take up the issue“, confides, optimistic, the chosen one. Especially since the ANJ also launched its own prevention campaign on Monday, called “You saw, you lost“, which is available on posters and in a piece of rap.
Recent commitments by operators in favor of a “responsible digital advertising» do not seem sufficient for Stéphane Troussel. Through a charter signed last week, under the aegis of the ANJ, all gambling operators authorized in France have undertaken to limit “advertising pressure on all communication media (television, radio, poster and digital) and strengthen the protection of minors and at-risk audiences“.
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Do not broadcast two advertising messages successively and do not appeal to influencers who have a “audience greater than or equal to 16% in the 13-17 age groupare among the recommended measures. Last proof of the growing pressure on the sector, Arcom (ex-CSA) recently extended to streaming and replay platforms the rules governing audiovisual advertising for sports betting.