Australian gambling companies are facing just another setback as a local parliamentary inquiry recommended the suspension of all online gambling advertising as part of the measures aimed at reducing financial harm inflicted on users.
In the report released earlier today, the chair of a committee that investigated the country’s online gambling sector and its impact on local customers – Peta Murphy – noted that the industry was manipulating the most vulnerable audiences that are usually more susceptible to gambling-related harm.
Ms Murphy, who is part of the ruling Labour Party, called for Australian lawmakers to impose a comprehensive ban on gambling advertising on all media channels. As she explained, younger audiences in Australia start to increasingly consider gambling and sports linked due to heavy gambling advertising. According to her, this creates a risk of breaching the integrity of sports, on one hand, and of gambling revenue becoming the primary purpose of partnerships between gambling companies and sports, on the other hand.
Federal Government Urged to Suspend Gambling Adverts during Sports Events
The Australian parliamentary inquiry into the local online gambling sector has released a landmark report recommending the implementation of a comprehensive reform of the nation’s digital gambling industry. The results of the inquiry signalled that the Government may be ready to change the long-existing practices of its predecessors to avoid tackling the dangerous and predatory tactics of the local gambling sector.
Now, the Federal Government is being urged to suspend gambling advertising during sporting events within three years, as anti-gambling campaigners across the nation are getting increasingly concerned with an ongoing crisis that puts the mental and financial health of many Australians in danger.
The aforementioned inquiry of the parliamentary committee has made 31 recommendations on how the local gambling sector should be regulated and how competent authorities should support people who struggle with gambling addiction and gambling-related harm.
Among the recommendations made as a result of the inquiry is a phased suspension of all gambling adverts over three years, along with stricter oversight of the industry by the Federal Government. The restrictions have been suggested as a result of increasing concerns that local children were getting more exposed to sports betting adverts regularly, with experts warning there is another generation of Australians, who believe gambling and sports are essentially related, in the making.
Under the existing gambling advertising rules in the country, broadcasters are not allowed to air gambling adverts within 5 minutes of the starting or finishing of a sporting event. Of course, there are certain exceptions, including during breaks in long-form events (such as tennis and cricket matches) but they apply only after the 8:30 PM watershed. Gambling operators are also allowed to have a representative promote various betting odds during long-form events, as long as they are not at the venue where the event is taking place.
Australian Gamblers Generate the Largest Gambling Losses Per Capita Worldwide
Currently, Australia has been the nation that generates the largest gambling losses per capita, with its residents losing approximately AU$25 billion on an annual basis. The overall spending on online gambling services in the country rose from AU$5.6 billion in 2019 to AU$9.6 billion, with the result triggered by the lockdown restrictions after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In its turn, the local gambling industry spent an estimated AU$287.2 million on advertising its services on the territory of the nation in 2021.
The latest report and the 31 recommendations in it have laid the foundations for a serious clash between the Federal Government and the local gambling industry, together with Australian broadcasting groups that air the adverts. Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister of the country, shared that the Government will take the committee’s recommendation into consideration.
As mentioned above, the committee suggested that the Federal Government of Australia should gradually introduce a comprehensive advertising ban over a three-year period. It also called for online gambling operators to be forced to pay a harm-reduction tax aimed at funding gambling addiction treatment and support for customers who are dealing with gambling-related harm.
- Author
Olivia Cole
