Pressure to deliver
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has recently come under increased fire for not delivering on his 2021 re-election manifesto to ban gambling ads on the London Underground.
According to The Standard, detractors accuse Khan of “backtracking.”
wait for Londoners’ complaints and media outcry
In a recent written question, a member of the London Assembly asked Khan when he “will implement an ethical advertising policy for TfL, rather than wait for Londoners’ complaints and media outcry to remove gambling adverts from the transport network.”
In 2021, the mayor promised to instruct Transport for London to ban gambling adverts on the Tube network “given the devastating way gambling addiction can destroy lives and families.”
Waiting on a definition
Mayor Khan told the assembly member he wanted to “hear more detail about the Government’s plans in this area” before “looking further at any implications for TfL’s policy.”
Khan has now said that he will wait for the Government to “provide a national framework to addressing this issue” before taking any action on behalf of City Hall.
UK capital’s problem gambling rate was twice the British average
Khan’s response followed a warning to him in March by The London Assembly’s health committee that the UK capital’s problem gambling rate was twice the British average.
According to reports, the mayor’s health advisor, Dr. Tom Coffey, told the commission’s investigators that Underground ad bans “had been held up.” The reason Coffey gave was that “City Hall could be subject to legal challenge if it introduced restrictions based on its own definition of ‘harmful gambling.’”
At that time, City Hall was said to have already requested the UK Government and public health partners “to help develop a national definition” of problem gambling.
Advisor warns of legal costs
According to The Standard, Coffey stated that once the national definition of problem gambling has been published, the Mayor’s team would “move as swiftly as possible” to tackle Underground gambling ads.
would cost millions in legal challenges”
Khan’s health advisor, however, warned against anyone getting ideas of litigation, saying they would not want him to “do something that would cost millions in legal challenges and not move the dial one little bit.”