Gambling Marketing in Young Adults’ Digital Media Environments: Exposure, Gambling Risk, and Momentary Responses

Advertising restrictions largely remove gambling marketing from mass media, but digital channels, from social media to e-mail, leave room for paid, owned, and earned messages that are difficult to monitor. In a seven-day ecological momentary assessment, 178 Dutch online gamblers aged 18–30 documented encounters with gambling marketing with a screenshot or photo; all 1,377 images were content-analysed. At least one encounter was reported in 42% of assessment intervals and high-risk gamblers recalled more marketing encounters than other participants. Half of the documented marketing came from Instagram or Facebook, half offered a financial inducement, and one in fourteen messages came from unlicensed operators or impersonated licensed brands; high-risk gamblers mostly documented operators’ own posts, the other groups mostly paid ads. At encounters, participants reported a stronger urge to gamble, anticipated more positive outcomes and more escalation of their gambling, and expected to feel less guilty about gambling than in their own unexposed moments. Additionally, gambling was more likely in the same interval as an encounter. Gambling marketing thus remains a routine part of young gamblers’ digital media use and encounters coincide with momentary shifts towards gambling.