Having been stimulated by the success of our great athletes at the Paris Olympics, where we’re one of the greatest winners per capita coming in fourth on the gold medal tally, Australia is actually the greatest losers per head in the world when it comes to gambling. We actually lose $25 billion a year on legal gambling.
As a consequence, former Prime Ministers John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull have been joined by former State Premiers Dominic Perrottet, Jeff Kennett and Steve Bracks, along with other politicians and sporting stars, to demand less advertising encouraging people to lose their money.
At the core of this group’s demands are the 31 recommendations that came out of the ‘You win some, you lose more’ review. Led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, this review had the biggest kick-in-the-pants for gambling businesses — a total ban on gambling ads within three years! (Peta Murphy was the member for Dunkley, who died from breast cancer in December last year.)
What the Albanese Government opts for ahead of an election will be closely watched, with AAP and sbs.com.au reporting that “the Albanese government has implemented a self-exclusion register and banned credit card use for gambling, [but] some reports suggest gambling ads reform will be watered-down to limiting when they are shown.”
The politician in the hotseat is Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, who’ll deliver the specifics of any policy changes once they’ve decided on the reforms.
Supporting the tough reforms, former PM John Howard argues that gambling is behind enormous social harm. “As an unapologetic sports fan, I am troubled by how advertising is now linked with all our major sporting codes and what message this is sending to our children,” he said.
Given the weight of the influential Australians backing the ban or reduction in gambling advertising, it looks pretty certain that change is about to happen. In fact, I’d put money on it!
In fact, looking at the chart for Tabcorp, which has fallen by around half in value over the past year, tells me that the stock market is betting on changes that won’t be good for gambling businesses.
Tabcorp Holdings Ltd
It’s now up to PM Anthony Albanese to see if he’s willing to punt on upsetting big gambling business, some of which are multi-nationals. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, there are “…three in four (73%) Australians aged 18 and over [who] reported spending money on one or more gambling products in the past 12 months”. While that’s potentially a lot of voters, one wonders if they really want ads encouraging them to lose!