An ethical case against “responsible” gambling advertising: A UK context‐based, semiotic perspective
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Gambling advertising has hardly been subjected to moral scrutiny, and ethical evaluation is long overdue. In this paper, I put “responsible gambling” messages of UK marketing campaigns purporting efforts by the gambling industry to encourage safer gambling to ethical scrutiny. A UK context‐based “semiotic” analysis serves as a prelude to the assessment of the moral blameworthiness of gambling advertising. Drawing mainly from Kantian deontological ethics and Ross' prima facie moral duties, a theoretical framework built upon the key issues of honesty, the avoidance of deception , non‐maleficence , and legitimacy is proposed. The semio‐ethical evaluation leads to an unambiguous verdict of moral wrongness. In addition to a novel approach combining semiotics and ethics and radical legislative implications, the study contributes to developing a better appreciation of how a higher‐order semiotic reading of textual signs used in gambling advertising can at least help mitigate the social cognitive conditioning of public perception.
Source: Business and Society Review
DOI: 10.1111/basr.70025
Author: Glauco De Vita
Institution: Coventry University
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,900
OpenAlex ID: W4414951901