Joe Streeter writes for iGaming Expert on the importance of social media sites increasing their efforts to eradicate illicit market streams
The ever-tightening framework over advertising of the regulated gambling sector is futile if the guerrilla marketing of the unregulated sector isn’t halted from flooding social media.
While the utilisation of viral clips and influential figures is something seen across the board, it is particularly problematic when it comes to TikTok. The short-form social media platform has truly penetrated the minds and lifestyles of a younger audience – wielding monumental influence in their culture.
Gambling operators are not allowed a presence on TikTok, but this hasn’t diluted the high levels of content that glamourise crypto crash games bleeding into the algorithm of a highly impressionable young audience.
For a generation that was brought up on media trends set by cultural icons such as David Beckham and Robbie Williams, it is easy to dismiss the influence of the likes of HstikkyTokky and SteveWillDoIt.
Of course there’s a broader conversation to be had about why figures like HstikkyTokky and SteveWillDoIt are given such prominent platforms, but dismissing their influence outright only deepens an already troubling blind spot when it comes to safeguarding.
A previous generation’s heroes had an influence so far-reaching that it led to me wearing brazen gold Adidas Predators and donning a flamboyant blonde-tipped mohawk, damaging only my ability to get a first girlfriend and ruining a plethora of family photos – sorry Mum.
Yet, a new era of influencers are manipulating their audience in a far more harmful way – selling them crash game dreams via websites devoid of any effective safeguards.
Nipping it in the bud
First experiences are not to be understated. The first football match I watched was the 1999 Champions League final, and it cemented a future as a Manchester United fan, which in recent years is something that has caused much trauma.
Dipping my toes into the world of gambling for the first time, like many of my closest friends, was glancing over a weekend-long list in the pub or at a stadium before a round of football. It wasn’t perfect, but it emphasised the fun of sports betting.
For many, their first experience of iGaming will be viewing an influencer who, for whatever reason, they idolise, recklessly chasing financial security on a gamified crypto crash game.
What’s worse, in many cases, the money said influencers are playing with isn’t even their own. The emotions, much like the lifestyle they portray, is completely phoney, with only one purpose – to entice their vulnerable viewers into signing up to an unregulated operator and engaging with a volatile crash game.
Sports betting and iGaming are fun for so many, but it is crucial that they are introduced in a responsible way.
Education at an early stage is essential. There is no doubt about that. One thing that is less clear is where the responsibility lies when it comes to safeguarding this type of content from the eyes of minors.
There is largely no regulator for the types of operators that tap into this sort of predatory approach; this may mean we are reliant upon either social media platforms taking a moral high ground or governmental intervention. Neither of which fills me with optimism that this growing epidemic will be cured.
