Browsing by Subject "Stigmatisation"

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Gambling advertising on social media
(2025) Singer, Johannes; Sousa-Poza, Alfonso
Digitalisation has made social media available worldwide and driven the global growth of the gambling industry. In response to these dynamic developments in a rapidly changing media landscape, the State Treaty on Gambling legalised online gambling in Germany in 2021. Providers are now also permitted to use advertising to direct interested parties to the legal gambling market. Since the legal gambling market, unless illegal gambling offers, is supervised by the German gambling authority, and providers must comply with applicable regulations, the aim is to protect the population, especially vulnerable groups, from gambling-related harm. However, advertising gambling can pose risks, especially for children and young people. A particularly high volume of gambling advertising appears on social media because these networks have established themselves as attractive advertising platforms. As children and young people are the most active social media users in Germany, they are likely to be exposed to a high level of gambling advertising on these platforms. Against this background, this dissertation analyses gambling advertising on social media in Germany for the first time. First, a systematic review provides an overview of the research literature on the advertising strategies of gambling providers and their effects on social media. To this end, three scientific databases were searched, and international journal articles in English published in or after 2021 were included. The review addresses the following four questions: (i) What are the characteristics of gambling advertising on social media? (ii) How do gambling advertisements and strategies affect users' attitudes and behaviour on social media? (iii) What safeguards are in place to protect individuals, particularly vulnerable groups, from gambling-related harm? (iv) What research gaps exist in the study of gambling advertising? Clearly, social media play a central role in gambling providers' advertising strategies. They can adapt their strategies flexibly to prevailing circumstances. However, the increasing intensity and complexity of gambling advertising, coupled with the blurring of boundaries between advertising and neutral content, appear problematic. Vulnerable groups, especially children and young people, are exposed to an increased risk as these forms of advertising are especially appealing to them. Furthermore, rapid developments make it difficult for regulatory authorities to keep up. The following chapter makes a first attempt to analyse the advertising strategies and content of German gambling providers on social media. For this purpose, various providers from different sectors are compared with each other. These include providers of sports betting, state lotteries, social lotteries, commercial lotteries, and casinos. The data analysis is based on tweets from selected accounts on the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) that were collected via the associated API. A mixed-methods approach is adopted, combining a qualitative summative content analysis with semi-supervised guided topic modelling to determine the frequency, number of followers, interactions, and content of the tweets. Overall, the accounts of German gambling providers demonstrate significantly lower activity levels than those of providers in other countries. Apart from the fact that all sports betting providers mainly used content from the 'News' category, no clear patterns emerged in the advertising strategies of the different providers or sectors. However, the ‘News’ content category was often used in combination with less neutral content categories. This is problematic given that most tweets had hardly any age restrictions or responsible gambling messages. Consequently, this leads to blurring of the distinction between neutral content and gambling advertisements, particularly when the latter is not explicitly identifiable as advertising. This advertising practice specifically endangers children and young people, despite the State Treaty on Gambling defining this target group as needing protection. Finally, a deep learning approach was employed to examine the stigmatisation of gambling disorder on the video platform YouTube in Germany and how it is expressed in the everyday language of users. As stigmatisation and self-stigmatisation are substantial barriers to therapy, and as young people are the age group most affected by gambling-related harm and the most active social media users, it is reasonable to assume that they encounter stigmatising statements on social media. This analysis combines guided topic modelling with qualitative summative content analysis to demonstrate the occurrence of statements associated with the stigmatisation of gambling disorder. Gambling disorder is associated with negative attributes and moral judgments. However, social media can also offer a suitable channel through which to protect young people from the negative consequences of stigmatisation and disseminate information to the general public, as well as targeted groups that are at risk. For example, attention could be drawn to treatment options or the fact that recovery is possible. It can also emphasise that seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness. This highlights the potential of social media to help reduce the stigma surrounding gambling disorder. To summarise, the role of social media in the context of the State Treaty on Gambling can be described as ambivalent. On the one hand, they are suitable as an attractive advertising platform for gambling providers to address interested individuals and direct them to the state-monitored, legal gambling market. In this sense, they help to protect the population from gambling-related harm since legal gambling providers are subject to the control of the state gambling supervisory authority and must comply with applicable gambler protection regulations, such as advertising regulations. In addition, social media offers the opportunity to address a young age group and inform them about prevention options and offers of help. On the other hand, young people, as the most active user group on social media in Germany, are highly exposed to gambling advertising. Since young people in Germany are most frequently affected by a gambling-related disorder, this certainly seems problematic. High exposure to gambling advertisements harbours health risks, especially as such content is often not accompanied by age restrictions and responsible gambling messages. This blurs the lines between harmless content and gambling advertising. Furthermore, gambling providers can flexibly adapt their advertising strategies on social media to evolving conditions. The fast-moving changes in the media landscape and the advertising practices of gambling providers ultimately present the regulatory authorities with the challenge of keeping pace with these dynamic developments.