Australians lose almost twice as much from gambling as people in the US, and poker machines – the biggest single source of losses – are more common in the nation’s suburbs than public toilets, ATMs and post boxes, a new report has found.
The Grattan Institute report – A better bet: How Australia should prevent gambling harm – concludes that to limit the damage from gambling, the government needs to not only ban gambling ads but introduce a mandatory pre-commitment loss limit for online gambling and poker machines.
The researchers also recommend cutting the number of available poker machines in each state over a set number of years. With Australian adults losing on average $1,635 a year to gambling, mostly through pokies and betting, compared with $809 a year for American adults and $584 a year for New Zealand adults, the report concludes urgent action must be taken to address the harm.
The Grattan Institute chief executive, Aruna Sathanapally, said Australia had let the “gambling industry run wild, and gamblers, their families and the broader community are paying the price”.
“Gambling products are designed to be addictive and the consequences can be catastrophic: job loss, bankruptcy, relationship breakdown, family violence, even suicide,” Sathanapally said.
“It’s time our politicians stood up to the powerful gambling lobby and reined the industry in.”
But while the government is prepared to take some steps towards cutting down the number of gambling ads and inducements Australians are exposed to, it has all but backed away from implementing a blanket ban, as recommended by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
Despite public support, calls from the Greens and crossbench and its own MPs, the proposal that went to cabinet was for a partial ban, which would see gambling ads banned online, in children’s programming, during live sports broadcasts and an hour each side and limited to two an hour in general programming. Bans on ads in stadiums and on player gear is also under consideration.
But Sathanapally said more needed to be done, including putting in loss limits to act as a “seatbelt” against gambling harms.
“It would stop people suffering catastrophic losses – because no one should lose their house, or their life, on the pokies,’ Sathanapally said.
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The Grattan researchers compared how similar countries with high-impact, high-loss pokies treated the machines, and found they were usually confined to casinos. But in Australia “they are pockmarked across our suburbs and towns, increasing the risk of harm”.
“About 93% of Australia’s 185,000 pokies are outside casinos. Suburban pokies are more common than ATMs, post boxes or public toilets,” the report found.
The report also found pokies were most concentrated in disadvantaged communities and were “particularly prevalent in NSW, which has almost as many pokies as the rest of Australia combined”. Pokie losses were unevenly spread, with “poorer communities bearing the brunt”.
“People living in the poorest fifth of communities in NSW lose an average of $1,524 a year on pokies, compared with $922 for people living in the most well-off fifth,” the report found.
“Residents of Fairfield, one of the poorest communities in Sydney, lose $3,967 a year on pokies – three times the state average. In Victoria, the communities of Brimbank and Dandenong – both disadvantaged – have led the state in pokies losses per person for at least a decade. These same three communities – Fairfield in Sydney, and Brimbank and Dandenong in Melbourne – stand out for other gambling spending too.”
Cabinet received a verbal briefing on the Rowland plan on Monday, with the next step for legislation to be introduced before the end of the year.