Gambling ads reach over twice as many men as women in Ireland

A latest evaluation of playing promoting on Meta platforms in Eire uncovered a marked gender disparity, with greater than twice as many male accounts reached in comparison with feminine accounts. 

The findings, revealed on Thursday and led by the College of Cambridge, centered on 88 Eire-licensed playing operators and analysed a pattern of 411 adverts displayed between March 2024 and February 2025. It reviewed these aged between 18-65+.

Researchers affiliated with the Tutorial Discussion board for the Research of Playing undertook an in depth examination of Meta’s promoting repository. It leveraged knowledge mandated for publication underneath the European Union’s Digital Companies Act (DSA). 

This laws requires massive on-line platforms, together with Meta, to offer detailed data of paid commercials and related viewers demographic summaries for international locations inside the EU and European Financial Space.

What have been the principle findings?

The adverts reached 12,690,245 male Meta accounts in comparison with 5,458,438 feminine accounts, representing a 2.3:1 ratio favouring males. Total, 18,389,653 distinctive accounts have been uncovered to playing commercials throughout the interval.

Of the 411 adverts, 91 (22%) explicitly focused males solely, whereas none focused ladies completely. The bulk (74%) have been labelled as focusing on ‘All’.

In the case of age, youthful adults dominated advert attain, with the 25-34 age group constituting the biggest phase (6,246,408 accounts, or 33.9%). Moreover, the 35-44 age group reached 4,701,885 accounts (25.5%). Collectively, the 25-44 age bracket accounted for almost 60% of the reached viewers.

Strikingly, the analysis reported {that a} single Betfair commercial reached 1,320,179 distinctive accounts, roughly 26% of Eire’s 5.15 million inhabitants. In the meantime, the 5 most-viewed adverts collectively reached 3,688,413 accounts.

The researchers famous that though express male-only focusing on was restricted, Meta’s advert supply algorithms skewed strongly in the direction of male customers. Additionally they highlighted the prominence of sports-themed adverts, notably soccer, as contributing elements to this gender disparity.

“Not that many adverts instantly focused males to start with.” stated Dr Elena Petrovskaya, the lead creator of the report and school member on the Cambridge Division of Pc Science and Expertise.

“However even when adverts have been set to achieve all genders, they nonetheless reached that very weak group of younger males.

“It exhibits that if firms simply put advertisements on social media, they’re nonetheless reaching younger males – the group we all know from different analysis is most liable to playing harms.” 

How does Eire gamble?

Eire displays comparatively excessive charges of playing participation, with lifetime engagement estimated at 64.5%. Roughly 3.3% of the inhabitants fall into the high-risk playing class, with males aged 25-34 recognized as having the very best ranges of dangerous playing behaviour (1.3%) in comparison with 0.2% amongst ladies in the identical age group.

“Even in a rustic like Eire with a small inhabitants, the variety of accounts these advertisements reached was dizzying,” stated Petrovskaya. “We checked out Eire as a case examine of an surroundings the place a contemporary playing regulatory framework had not but been adopted.”

The info assortment predates the total implementation of provisions in Eire’s Playing Regulation Act 2024, which took impact in March 2025. It additionally established the Playing Regulatory Authority. 

These laws launched stricter promoting limits, together with a watershed banning playing commercials on broadcast and on-demand audiovisual providers between 5.30am and 9.00pm. It additionally lined social media and video platform playing advertisements, limiting them solely to customers who observe a licensed playing operator.

Co-author Dr Deidre Leahy from MTU in Cork emphasised the significance of additional analysis to evaluate the Playing Regulation Act.

“This analysis offers helpful insights that set up a baseline for the attain of playing promoting on social media in Eire earlier than the introduction of a regulatory framework. 

“This baseline shall be important for assessing the impression of reforms underneath the Playing Regulation Act.”

UK MPs model advertisements as public well being difficulty

This analysis provides to proof indicating that playing commercials, particularly these with sports activities themes focusing on youthful males, could normalise betting behaviours. 

A latest All-Get together Parliamentary Group (APPG) report on UK playing commercial referred to as for stricter reforms. 

The report famous a rising focus of this spending on digital platforms, sports activities sponsorships and social media channels. It steered operators have been using methods that risked normalising playing amongst underage audiences. In response to the report, UK MPs have framed playing commercials as a public well being difficulty.

The Cambridge examine concluded that the Meta Advert Library provides a helpful useful resource for monitoring playing promoting practices inside Eire and the broader EU context. 

The researchers urged continued use of platform transparency instruments for regulatory oversight. Additionally they urged follow-up research to evaluate the impression of the Playing Regulation Act in addition to shut surveillance of regulatory enforcement to stop illicit promoting circumvention.