Here is why nothing will change in Australia; as you will see from the reports below both the major parties are in receipt of the gambling industry’s largesse, and they can not afford to upset the ‘golden goose’:
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YES! I don’t see lot of this advertising because I don’t watch a lot of sport, but when I do see it, it ruins my experience. I’m offended by it, because I worry about where it leads, and the danger it poses to those with gambling addiction. I believe we would be a better country without it.
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Thank you for responding maggie1. I am hoping to gauge the strength of community feeling on this issue with a view to furthering my research and either joining an existing campaign to end this type of advertising or, if none exists, to beginning one. Glad to hear from you.
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Thank you for your considered response, SherylW - that statistic on primary school-aged children is rather chilling. It’s good to hear that your son has such great social awareness and a desire to address issues of concern.
Great articles which exemplify one of the major obstacles to reform. I am not without hope, however, as the situation with tobacco companies shared some of these characteristics until governments realised they could use taxes instead. Thank you, meltam.
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Oh dear, Ellerm - good viewing for the youngster…
Am very grateful for the responses thus far - thank you all for your input. I wonder if a starting point would be to limit exposure to gambling advertising to adult only situations. (an option included in grahroll poll, which I really hope you’ll contribute to) At least that will curb the normalising of it to young minds, as SusanCL has alluded to. Covid sent many pokies gamblers online and seems to have precipitated the explosion of advertising to keep them there. Addicts trying to stop and young people being primed to start need protection, in my view.
Sportsbet may have won the gong and copped a slap on the wrist as usual. $2.5 million will surely get their attention. Surely it will.
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Gambling advertising is ubiquitous and potentially more of a problem than alcohol advertising which also seems to be on the increase.
Of particular concern in the overwhelming gambling advertising on SBS which I believe is substantially funded by the taxpayer?
Ban both gambling and alcohol advertising in all media mediums.
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Government demands taxpayer funded agencies provide their own additional revenue. Many take it wherever they can get it. Even the Bureau of Meteorology was required to try paid advertising on their web site.
The remnants remain although the BOM seems the only advertiser now. Note the ‘advertisement’ tag.
If the services were funded one could prohibit certain activities. In cases such as SBS one can make them decline certain advertising streams (regardless of any +/- arguments) but then also has to accept what they will no longer be able to deliver for lack of those funds; or expect government to fully fund a defined program for the agency/service, full stop? If you consider the partisan opportunities of the latter it is a difficult decision possibly falling into the be careful what you wish for category.
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@BrendanMays has the following article and Inquiry site been seen by the CHOICE organisation, within the article some of the places advertising is now appearing are mentioned and how youth see it as “normal”.
In the New Daily there is an article that describes the exposure (and likely targeting) of kids to gambling promotion. It calls out the Governments for their lack of effort in curtailing the exposure. Some of the reasoning behind the lack of effort is put down to the revenue that gambling produces and it is claimed “they [Governments] have decided the harms and costs associated with young people being exposed to gambling marketing are outweighed by any benefits to the gambling industry, sports (through sponsorships), and broadcasters (through advertising revenue) [my highlighting]”. There are some worrying but expected statements by youth about the exposure to, and normalising of, gambling to youth. I have provided the following link to the article and some other links to the Inquiry itself.
The Inquiry being undertaken is called "Inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm " and is still accepting submissions and undertaking hearings. There are a large number of submissions and these can be located at https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Social_Policy_and_Legal_Affairs/Onlinegamblingimpacts/Submissions
I could not find a submission from CHOICE (there may be one but I could not see it on the list) and if there isn’t one does CHOICE have an interest in providing one to the Inquiry? Would this be a consumer issue that CHOICE has a policy interest in?
Another report that is somewhat current is https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/15407/1/DL-Gambling-2020.pdf
It’s conclusions are that there needs to be more study about what is happening, and that “Gambling is a growing problem for most western societies [8], and the gambling industry’s profit motive means that they now spend record amounts on gambling advertising [10]. The past two decades of research suggests that the gambling industries investment in advertising is effective. The more people are exposed to gambling advertising, the more likely they are to become gamblers and problem gamblers. In the absence of effective government regulation, gambling advertising is likely to increase and be more influential, and lead to greater societal harm. Within this climate it is important that more and higher quality research on this issue is conducted in order to inform regulations and interventions that can reduce gambling harms.”
[8] Banks JE (Ed): Towards Global Gambling. London: Palgrave Macmillan; 2017.
[10] Ofcom: Trends in advertising activity - gambling. (Ofcom). Independent Regulator and Competition Authority for the UK Communications Industries (Ofcom). 2013. London.
A further SMH article on the AFL and NRL possible conflict with governments over sport betting advertisements is found at AFL, NRL on collision course with governments over sports betting ads
Help services for gambling problems are being blocked they claim by Google while gambling ads continue to get through Gambling help services frustrated their ads are being blocked online but wagering ads given green light | Gambling | The Guardian
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I have noticed an increasing trend that gambling advertising is also occurring within electronic games children often play… especially the ones which offer a reward (another life, bonus assistance, in game reward etc) or an advertisement needs to be watched to allow the game to progress. Many of these advertisements are for online casinos, ‘free’ casino game apps or online betting. They can be almost 50% of advertising pushed through the app advertising from time to time.
Linking gambling advertising to getting something with the app is very sinister as it creates an association between gambling and a reward.
There is also no way to opt out of inappropriate content in advertising (age based or content categories). It is the advertising platforms (Google, Facebook, Apple etc) that pushes their advertising to anyone without any discretion or a conscious.
Australia also now has the AFL under pressure to accept sponsorship from gambling companies. When will it stop before the government realises it has gone too far - or will MPs positions be biased by donations they receive from the same companies.
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Thanks for sharing these articles. I know it’s an area of interest, but I don’t think we have a submission planned for this one due to other projects. I’ll make sure I pass this on to our campaigns team
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When connecting with a major sporting event or team it’s as a customer of a business. Possibly from very humble beginnings in NSW in 1956.
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There are now mandatory cautions which have to be shown after betting ads. I noticed that only on NEDS ads the ads are very loud but the warnings are so quiet they are barely a whisper and hardly noticeable. Surely this is not what the government intended. Are they breaking advertising rules?
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Probably not. As long as betting advertising is following the rules set out in the NCPF regulations, it should be fine.
Have you ever noticed during election advertising by political parties the mandatory disclosure statement of who authorised the message is very quiet, and spoken very fast?
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One more place promotion of betting is now common, and being called into question.
It appears that the Federal Opposition supports a restriction on gambling advertising, with a long term plan to phase out all gambling advertisements:
The government appears to be waiting for the parliamentary inquiry before making any policy decisions in relation to the future of gambling advertising as the:
prime minister did not rule out supporting the measure, noting that there was a parliamentary inquiry into gambling under way.
