125,000 tell PM to kick gambling adverts out of football

More than 125,000 people have called on Sir Keir Starmer to kick gambling adverts out of football.

A petition organised by The Big Step campaign was handed in to 10 Downing Street at the beginning of the week. This was preceded by a march through the Prime Minister’s constituency from the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club – the team Sir Keir supports.

Attending the event were people in recovery from gambling addiction, and people who have lost family members to gambling-related suicide.

Adverts triple

The campaign highlighted that during the Premier League’s opening weekend in August, 29,000 gambling adverts were displayed – almost triple the previous year’s 11,000.

Research has also revealed that, despite a voluntary code on gambling advertising, half of the league’s clubs exhibited adverts on webpages aimed at or featuring children.

While The Big Step welcomed a voluntary front-of-shirt sponsorship ban for Premier League clubs from the start of the 2026/27 season, it noted this was only “a small step in the right direction” and that “shirt sponsorship is only a very tiny proportion of the visible gambling logos that millions of fans, including children, see throughout the season”.

It added that gambling harm among UK children has more than doubled in the past 12 months, and that an estimated 1.3 million adults in Great Britain may suffer from ‘problem gambling’, eight times higher than previously thought.

‘It’s getting worse’

Former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who had a 45-year gambling addiction, helped organise the petition. He said: “You can’t escape the gambling ads at football matches and it is getting worse. It’s not just dangerous for children and people like me who are recovering from a gambling addiction but for everyone.

“Sport is a family affair and must be kept safe. Taking them off shirt fronts is not enough, the government needs to step in and go much further.”

Nick Harvey from The Big Step said: “It’s all around the stadiums, and children are going to these games, that’s the thing. Children are being mass advertised over-18 products, and that’s simply not right. You shouldn’t be going to a football game to be advertised gambling products, you should be going to it to see your heroes play football.”

He added that the Government needs to take action because “football itself is not doing enough. The voluntary measures aren’t working – actually what’s been shown is it’s actually getting worse.”

‘An abusive industry’

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who was present for the handover at No. 10, told The Christian Institute: “What’s going on is abusive. It’s trapping young kids into gambling very early on”.

He continued: “It is an abusive industry built up, ultimately, on addiction. We don’t like addiction of illegal drugs, we don’t like smoking addiction. This is an addiction similar to that, and it does nothing but harm.

He said the Government’s recent move to limit online stakes and introduce a levy is welcome, but added that “the one big missing thing in all of this is this massive increase in gambling advertising, everywhere you go, anything to do with sport, you see it.

“Football clubs should no longer take advertising. They should find other revenue. That’s a big one for them because it’s easy money. But I simply say ‘Think about the harms that it’s doing’.”