The major sporting codes in Australia have turned down calls for stricter regulation of online gambling although some of the largest sports clubs and professional athletes have shared their concerns on the matter.
During a federal parliamentary inquiry, the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports (COMPPS) has shared that the existing restrictions on gambling advertising and broadcast are more than enough if individual sporting codes take necessary action.
Currently, the organisation represents the National Rugby League (NRL), Rugby Australia, the Australian Football League (AFL), Football Australia, Tennis Australia, and Netball Australia.
Jo Setright, the executive director of policy of COMPPS, noted that the current arrangements have found the right balance between the gambling operators’ right to promote their products in a manner that is transparent and socially responsible and the public interest in watching sport without the viewers being bombarded with excessive references to live odds and gambling as a whole. In a submission to the inquiry, the organisation’s director shared that any measures that affect the advertising revenue model for local broadcasting groups may have an impact on the value of sports’ media rights.
In the last few months, a number of professional sports clubs and athletes have criticised the extended presence of gambling and sports betting adverts and shared their concern that gambling is being normalised to both children and adults in the country. A couple of NRL clubs – Canterbury Bulldogs and South Sydney Rabbitohs – officially revealed that they would suspend gambling promotions on ground signage and big screens. The two clubs also said they would remove any gambling sponsors’ logos from their club apparel.
Australia Remains the Country With the Biggest Gambling Losses Worldwide
Labor MP Peta Murphy, who is the chair of the aforementioned parliamentary inquiry, shared that the statement made by COMPPS was not in line with community rules and sentiment. According to her, such a position did not go well with some of the evidence regarding increasing gambling participation and gambling-related harm growth that has been received from gambling market experts.
According to data provided by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, 948 gambling advertisements on average were aired on a daily basis on free-to-air television channels in the state of Victoria in 2021. As previously reported by Casino Guardian, Australia has emerged as the country featuring the largest gambling losses, with an average loss of AU$1,276 per person annually. Gambling addiction rates in the country more than doubled in less than a decade, from 0.6% of the Australian adult population in 2011 to 1.23% in 2019.
In November 2022, the Federal Government of Australia unveiled plans for gambling companies to change the “gamble responsibly” tagline in their adverts’ responsible gambling messages with one of six new warnings aimed at tackling compulsive gambling and gambling-related harm.
COMPPS, in its turn, revealed for the inquiry that the revenue generated as a result of betting partnership deals allowed local governing bodies to fund their integrity units and use the money for other operational priorities. According to Mr Setright, every review of the state’s online gambling regulation should recognise the importance and necessity of such funding in order for state governing bodies to be able to support various programs and at the same time enhance the existing integrity protection programs of professional sports.
- Author
Daniel Williams
