Online casinos increased spending on adverts by 97 per cent over five years

Children are being bombarded with a record number of gambling adverts as betting websites embark on an unprecedented spending spree to attract new customers.

Figures show that the industry has spent £1.4 billion on advertising since 2012, with online casinos doubling their marketing budgets over the past five years.

Britain’s biggest charity to help addicts is so concerned about the increasing volume of advertising that it is urging ministers to introduce stricter rules. Writing today in The Times, Kate Lampard, the chairwoman of GambleAware, says: “With the average age at which children start to watch post-watershed TV unsupervised being 11¾, restrictions based on a 9pm watershed may offer little protection.

“We need to balance the array of [commercial gambling] advertising with information about the