Will Anderson got stuck in to this subject on Gruen last night, available on iView if you missed it.
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I would prefer the advertising totally removed . To play the ads in family time TV is really irresponsible of a government who should be grown up enough to Give guidance to kids not to help corrupt them⊠Iâm expecting too much from these greedy pollies I suspect.
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Gruen (ABC TV) pointed out that few women appear in these adverts, usually failing to distract our hero from placing his bet. Thatâs not showing children a healthy family.
The big bold brassy âCash Backâ (so what have you got to lose?) is more likely just credit towards another bet. People start out betting on what they know (eg NRL) and end up desperately betting on things they have little knowledge of in an attempt to get the rent money back.
I came from a frugal family. My father got us to pick lotto numbers every Saturday and on paper we debited and credited each week and all ended up broke, several times over. No pocket money was harmed in this endeavour, but it left me with a deep distrust of gambling. It is a little harder to do with sports betting because the odds, bets & returns may not be published as well as lotto.
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Nice to hear from you - its totally immoral targeting the kids like this. My great nephew lost his $5 and went to counter and said It took all my money. He was refunded. His friend lost $10 and went to parents for more money. I mean its just too much. Re MacDonalds rubbish drink sticker - what a crummy offer. Getting at the kids like this is offsetting any good habits their parents are trying to instill into them. cheers.
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I am not a wowser by any means but I find these adverts totally offensive & appalling.
What I just donât get is why every other age restricted or otherwise restricted âproductâ group - alcohol, tobacco, R-rated movies etc etc - is not allowed to be shown either at all or during a certain times yet for some reason a âserviceâ that is just as addictive as many drugs (alcohol & ciggies spring to mindâŠ) and is just as damaging, destroying families, careers and, yes, taking lives, is being advertised at all times of day as if it is some kind of harmless fun.
I have no problem with people gambling but as it is a restricted service keep the advertising to the same rules as other adult products.
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I agree there should be a Time when this sort advert is allowed
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Now we have a TV News service about to air how there are new gambling options available and this is going to be done at a time when children are still around and watching news. This is, as far as I am concerned, blatant advertising disguised as a news story. Australia is so involved in gambling and Governments are seemingly loath to do anything about it (for example NSW reversing the decision to ban dog racing), the almighty dollar speaks again 
While Governments get funds and seek returns from Gambling it is an anathema to them to restrict advertising. It is like the cost of petrol while prices are high Governments reap GST and so are not keen to investigate and take action over what seems to be a conspiracy over pricing.
To stop this trend we need to change the way Governments benefit from socially destructive habits.
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Would choice please let us know whether they are taking action to combat these unscrupulous gambling rogues. Smoking, alcoholic drinks,etc are no longer advertised, for good reason, during Family tv.
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The fundamental issue that you canât get away from is that the sports involved are televised live. So the normal rules around what you can show on TV at what times canât sensibly be applied. There are lots of radical fixes but they all come with significant negatives.
As a consumer of a sporting product it seems like your only options right now are
a) choose not to consume (i.e. donât watch)
b) choose that your children donât consume (i.e. send them to another room)
c) record the game and watch it in the evening when the children have gone to bed
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Hi @jadak1522, we weighed on on the issue of sports gambling earlier this year. Thereâs more work to be done, stay tuned.
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It would be nice if that were possible with digital TV but it would basically destroy the entire business model of free-to-air TV.
If I had the technology to do that, I wouldnât block gambling ads. I would block all ads - and itâs pretty obvious from the replies here that I wouldnât be alone in doing that. (Effectively, media has been fighting this trend for decades - first with ad-skipping for programs recorded and then watched later - and more recently with ad-blocking software applied to online advertising.)
So lobby a TV manufacturer to bring out a TV that can do that for you (shouldnât be impossible). The TV manufacturer might make an exception for their own ads however.
Would you be happy then if all sport disappeared from free-to-air TV and moved to Pay TV and if the cost of Pay TV increased significantly? (This would entail the removal of the anti-siphoning provisions.)
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I can see that youâre making reasonable points, however I disagree with one fundamental.
I donât see how being live programming makes it more difficult to monitor or remove gambling advertising or references. Live programming is under the same broadcast laws, hence the delayed telecast to remove streakers (nudity) and swearing from broadcasts. And smoking advertising was banned from the venue so it wouldnât be shown.
Also, gambling was NEVER mentioned during a football or cricket match when I was growing up other than the turn of phrase âI bet you theyâll âŠâ It has actually been introduced which makes me wonder whether broadcasting laws/principles were changed to ALLOW this new behaviour?
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What I mean is ⊠back in the good old days if a TV station wanted to show a movie that was a bit âracyâ for family viewing, they would show it after a certain time in the evening. They could do the same with a sports broadcast but that would mean either
- forcing the TV station to show the sport on delayed broadcast (i.e. not live), or
- forcing the sportâs governing body to schedule all matches for evenings
The first option is a problem for the consumer because consumers generally want to watch sport live, where possible, and the first option is also a problem for the TV station because TV stations - in these desperately-straightened times for the media sector - love live broadcasts, because consumers canât ad-skip.
Remember you began by talking about the fact that people under the age of 18 are exposed to gambling ads. So it is not about banning advertising of gambling.
The second option is a can of worms.
In my opinion the issue here is not with government. I donât think the government is addicted to the revenue they get from sports betting. I think the issue is with a) the TV networks and b) the sport (who would both lose a heap of money with any material change to the way advertising and sponsorship can be done). In fairness to the TV networks therefore if any material change were legislated, its introduction should be scheduled for 5 years in the future.
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The issue is gambling ads not sporting events. They can stop advertising smoking and cigarettes during the sporting events, they can stop advertising the gambling.
They never had to advertise during events to get people to gamble before. Just like they didnât need to advertise alcohol to get people to drink while watching a game.
How does stopping advertising of gambling match what you started this topic with? If you just ban all advertising of gambling then how is this about âhours of the dayâ? If you just ban all advertising of gambling then how is this about âchildrenâ?
Consumer choice should be about adding choice - your choice for your children not to watch gambling ads or that choice for yourself too - not about subtracting choice - the choice of responsible adults.
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See part of the problem here with the adds for gambling is that you are dealing with something , gambling , that is very ingrained in Australian culture . On November the 1st Victoria has a public holiday for Melbourne Cup Day . Horse racing is naturally associated with gambling .The point that @person made was correct . Gambling adds would have to be phased out of a period of a minimum of 5 years . Tobacco adds and Alcohol adds did not disappear overnight .The Government set an agenda which had to adhered to and they were given a date for withdrawal . AS @person said in his post the advertising revenue for the Sporting Clubs and the TV networks would have to be found from other sources . The advertising pie is only so big and with the AFL , NRL , Netball , FFA , Rugby Union and other sporting codes cutting into it would not be feasible to stop gambling adds overnight . The above organisations would have to be given time to seek new sources of revenue for their activities . TV networks the same .
As a hypothetical letâs say they did ban gambling adds on all media tomorrow . The price of admission to sporting events would skyrocket . I donât wish to offend anybody but the very people who were wanting gambling adds banned would be probably starting new posts on this forum about the excessive price of taking the family to a sporting events . Again I repeat there is no inference to anybody in this particular post .
The biggest influence on children are their parents . Iâve taught primary age children and it is amazing the attributes you pick up from them concerning their parents . They watch everything you do . Take this advice . If your children are with you watching TV and a gambling add comes on and they see Mummy and Daddy do nothing . Just sit and keep watching the TV they accept that as the norm . You did not react to those adds you showed no interest in them .On the other hand if a gambling add came on while watching TV with them and you immediately ran to the phone to place a bet or opened up your computer to a gambling site they would think thatâs the norm . In a nutshell a lot of their behavioural patterns is in your hands not Media adds of any sort .
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In my post that contained âif we had a means to block advertising in family viewing hoursâ I was making a point that if we had the ability to block the ads we would choose to use it. But as we donât and I do not see it being introduced then one of the few options we have left is to ban Gambling ads during some designated family hours.
From my parent years 7 am to 7 pm seems a fair time to block but that is open to discussion by the various parties and interest groups. I do not seek to block all ads from FTA TV as that is what pays the bills, but just as we have restrictions on Cigarette ads and similar, I believe the removal of the gambling ads during certain hours is socially responsible.
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By the very fact of doing nothing during a gambling ad you are letting the child know that this is acceptable. Australia has a gambling problem and the more we normalize this behavior the more we encourage it. Why do we ban or limit certain advertising if just watching it was ok? Because it is not ok for example smoking ads, smoking is legal so why did we ban the ads, because smoking was bad for us and advertising influenced our behaviour.
There are peer reviewed studies about advertising and the influence it has on children which show that ads do affect them (easy to google it) not to their betterment but rather to the worse. Not every child may be affected but why weigh the balance in favour of bad outcomes?
Some reading about gambling in Australia:
In reply to @personâs post
Governments are benefiting in large amounts and rely on income from gambling please see:
Particularly read these paragraphs âThe money lost on gambling by Australiaâs working classes flows directly to state and territory treasuries and the gambling industryâs pockets. While around a quarter of gambling losses, ($5.5 billion in 2011-12), ends up in state coffers, the remaining $15 billion a year ends up in the hands of ânot-for-profitâ clubs and private sector companies.
Only a small fraction of club sector poker machine profits, often justified on the basis of community benefit, are returned by clubs to the community. For example, in 2010-11, clubs in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT spent respectively 1.3%, 2.4%, 2.3% and 6.6% of poker machine losses on community benefits.â
âGambling policy in Australia has traditionally been the responsibility of the States rather than the Commonwealth. State and territory governments regulate and provide gambling services and rely heavily on the ensuing revenue. However, recent developments have seen the Commonwealth take a more active role in this area. Public concern over the impact of gambling on Australian society prompted the Commonwealth to institute an inquiry by the Productivity Commission and its conclusions have fuelled further debate.â taken from The requested content has been archived â Parliament of Australia
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You certainly got that wrong Iâm afraid .The point I was making is that if you are sitting and watching TV with your children and a gambling add comes on . What do you do ? Grab the remote control and turn the TV off . I think not or just sit through the add and dont react to it . You make no mention of the the second example where the add comes on TV and you run to the phone to use your phone account to place a bet or open the computer up for online betting in front of the kids . That would be totally unacceptable in front of them as you are establishing a "life " pattern in front of them .You are right though, just them sitting and watching the adds they are being subliminally brainwashed . The tragedy is at the moment I can do nothing about it until the government acts and regulates the adds . Two words killed the tobacco industry adds "Passive Smoking " They had no answer to it and when they were threatened with lawsuits in the future by none smokers they caved in and the government regulated against their adds . Alcohol adds the same . Admins at Hospitals and directors at same did long term projections .They discovered that in thirty to forty years the damage that alcohol was doing to binge drinkers , especially the young , would put such a demand on medical resources that something needed to be done now . Alcohol adds banned . This seems to be the only scenario that gets some action with regulatory bodies . I think there is ample proof that the gambling problem is becoming endemic and needs to be curtailed because of over promotion . Ergo cut back or ban adds .
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Gambling, Anthony, not âgamingâ. Theyâre totally different.
