Govt must act now and ban gambling advertising
28 June 2024
The Alliance for Gambling Reform believes the Federal Government has had enough time to consider the recommendations of a parliamentary committee into online gambling and must now move immediately to implement all 31 recommendations of Murphy Report.
The government received the parliamentary report, chaired by Labor MP, Peta Murphy, exactly 12 months ago today and is still yet to deliver its response. A key recommendation in the report was a moderate and reasonable 3-year, phased-in ban on all gambling advertising.
Mr Thomas said this week The Alliance released new research that showed the number of people betting on sports has exploded, doubling in just five years with more than one third of all spending on sports betting now coming from people with a gambling problem, according to new research.
The research by Roy Morgan revealed more than a quarter of all men aged 18-24 and a third of men aged 25-34 now bet on sport. Young men are most at risk of falling into problem gambling – with close to 1 in 5 (17.5%) 18-24 year-olds who bet on sports, already defined as having a gambling problem.
“We know that last year there were over a million gambling ads bombarding our screens. We have to stop this. The Federal Government must move to ban all gambling advertising and adopt all 31 recommendations of the parliamentary report into online gambling,” Mr Thomas said.
Australians lose over $25 billion each year to gambling, the highest per capita spend in the world.
Mr Thomas said gambling harm was a massive public health issue, linked to poor physical and mental health, poverty and homelessness, criminal activity, family violence, and suicide.
“We are extremely concerned about the rapidly increasing harms caused by online gambling, and by the massive advertising of online gambling through a range of media including digital/social media channels,” Mr Thomas said.
Studies show that 7 in 10 Australians believe there are too many betting advertisements, and that gambling advertising on television should be banned; and parents in particular are concerned about their children’s vulnerability to gambling advertising.
“The parliamentary inquiry found that the “inescapable torrent” of gambling advertising is normalising online gambling and its links with sport, grooming children and young people to gamble, and encouraging riskier behaviour,” Mr Thomas said.
Australian’s deserve swift action from the Federal Government to address the devastating impacts of the current legislation which is leaving entire generations of Australian’s regularly exposed to a harmful product from the time they are old enough to watch the TV. Enough is enough. It’s time.
Martin Thomas is available for interview on 0477 340 704