Bill Shorten: Betting ads a balancing act

We’ve all heard the saying that Australians would bet on two flies crawling down a wall if they could.

Two-up was played extensively by Australia’s soldiers during World War I and is now closely associated with Anzac Day commemorations.

The Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge were built, partially, on money from government lotteries.

We throw our $2 in for the office sweep for the Melbourne Cup or buy the occasional scratchie.

It’s all gambling.

Some of us can have that first-Tuesday-in-November flutter and not think about it again until the first Monday in November the following year.

But for some Aussies, it’s not that easy and as someone who has witnessed the repercussions of a family member severely affected by gambling, I have firsthand knowledge of the harm it can do.

Australians lose a total of some $25 billion every year to gambling, more than anywhere else in the world on a per capita basis.

Alex Russell, a principal research fellow and associate professor in the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory at CQUniversity, said that while much of the money is lost to the ever-present poker machines in clubs and pubs, Aussies also lose more per head on sports and race betting.

Russell said that while horse betting has long been legal in Australia, sports betting wasn’t until 1983 when the Totalisator Agency Boards began taking bets on sports. Non-government sportsbooks didn’t appear until 1993 and online sports betting followed in 1996.

“Today,” said Russell, “many online operators take bets on sports, races and even things like what colour tie the prime minister will wear.”

That rise of online betting companies has spawned a tidal wave of gambling ads and promotions and that has been found to be effective in enticing people to bet when they didn’t intend or more than they intended.

Insights into the extent of the problem carried out for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, found that in interviews with 16,000 Australians, the number of people betting on sports has doubled in the past five years.

More than a quarter of all men aged 18-24 and a third of men aged 25-34 now bet on sport and 10 per cent of that group are classified problem gamblers.

And it’s not just the money lost.

Gambling addiction is linked to domestic and family violence and suicide. The impacts are greater in regional Australia and children are being actively groomed to believe that gambling is a central aspect of enjoying sport.

Let’s be blunt. Gambling advertising is out of control.

You shouldn’t be deluged with betting ads during sport and it shouldn’t be infiltrating the digital markets where, for example, some video games encourage people to accept betting as part of a game.

We cannot allow gambling to be normalised, particularly for our kids.

Since the last set of gambling ad restrictions were introduced in 2018 by the Liberals, there has been a 50 per cent increase in the total volume of gambling spots on television and radio, including an 86 per cent increase on regional TV.

The Coalition has now changed its tune and wants gambling ads reformed somewhat — which is good news — but they have conveniently forgotten that they are the architects of the current gambling advertising arrangements.

They have zero credibility on these issues, but better late than never.

The only reason we have any restrictions on gambling ads is because Labor acted when last in government and called for further restrictions in opposition.

We are committed to protecting vulnerable Australians from gambling harms and this Government has already done more about tackling gambling advertising than any previous government.

We banned the use of credit cards for online gambling. We’ve introduced new evidence-based “gamble responsibly” taglines in wagering advertising. Along the lines of the health warnings on cigarette packets.

We’ve strengthened the classification of gambling-like features on video games to stop sucking kids in.

We launched the national self-exclusion register BetStop. In its first 10 months of operation alone, 27,000 Australians have registered to voluntarily self-exclude from online wagering.

We introduced mandatory customer ID pre-verification for online wagering so minors and those who have excluded themselves through BetStop can’t gamble.

And this Government has fully implemented the remaining elements of the National Consumer Protection Framework, which was abandoned by the previous government.

The Albanese Government is the government of gambling ad reform and Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland, is leading the efforts.

Minister Rowland is working with stakeholders in good faith to do what is best for the community.

Doing nothing is not an option.

In my opinion, a blanket ban is not an option.

The reality is, wagering is not illegal, however, we have to work towards minimising harm for the most vulnerable in our community. While we can appreciate there are those who enjoy the odd flutter, when gambling ads are forced in the faces of Australians — we must draw a line.

Decisions that will alter Australia’s media landscape require careful consideration. After all, do you want all your news curated by Facebook or Instagram or, heaven forbid, X?

This is not an argument about reform or not reform. It’s an argument about how far, how fast, what’s realistic, and what isn’t.

We know that when people sit down to watch their footy with the family, they want to do it without the constant calls to bet and worrying about what impact those ads are having on young minds. And the Albanese Government will ensure we find the balance to get this right.

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