Gambling advertisements could be forbidden in Australia within three years, as the Albanese government mulls recommendations of a report following the parliamentary inquiry into online gambling harm.
The report, written by the House of Representatives standing committee on social policy and legal affairs and tabled on Wednesday, provides 31 recommendations that emerged from the lengthy inquiry this year.
Gambling advertising provides a large source of revenue for Australia’s broadcast networks.Credit: Getty
This masthead revealed on Monday that the phased advertising ban was one of the likely recommendations of the report.
The recommended ban would apply across television, radio, newspapers and online.
The committee also recommended the government implement a comprehensive national strategy on gambling harm reduction, create an online gambling ombudsman, impose new harm reduction levies, and improve its data collection.
Committee chair Peta Murphy said the timeline for the ads ban would “give major sports and broadcasters time to find alternate advertisers and sponsors while preventing another generation from experiencing escalating gambling harm”.
“Gambling advertising and simulated gambling through video games is grooming children and young people to gamble and encourages riskier behaviour,” she said. “The torrent of advertising is inescapable. It is manipulating an impressionable and vulnerable audience to gamble online.”
Gambling advertising provides a large source of revenue for Australia’s broadcast networks, with a total of $310 million spent by the sector in 2022, according to data from Nielsen’s Ad Intel Panel. More than 50 per cent is estimated to be spent on commercial television.
The federal government, which is not required to implement the committee’s recommendations, is expected to face significant pressure from the country’s biggest sporting codes and media companies not to adopt them.
‘Kneejerk moves’
Bridget Fair, CEO of Free TV Australia, which acts on behalf of networks Seven, Nine (the owner of this masthead) and Ten, said on Wednesday the proposed ban was based on a flawed premise that the advertising market was “some kind of magic pudding”, warning that falls in ad revenue would result in less funding for Australian television content.
“While we appreciate that there are concerns in the community regarding the volume of gambling ads, kneejerk moves to implement outright bans will ultimately hurt viewers and the television services they love,” she said.
These services are available to every Australian, no matter where they live or how much they earn, and they are only possible because of advertising revenue.”
Fair said the networks were willing to work constructively with the government on measures to reduce gambling advertising, while also ensuring quality of their content wasn’t suffering.
Meanwhile, Responsible Wagering Australia – which represents some of the country’s biggest bookmakers, including Sportsbet and Entain – argued that restricting regulated wagering providers from advertising would only entice those at risk of gambling harm to seek out unregulated bookies, who will not abide by the rules.
The government has faced months of pressure over its gambling policies and has been keen for the committee to conclude its work so it can announce new measures to curtail spending on gambling advertising.
The nine-person committee included representatives from the Labor, Liberal and National parties, as well as independent representatives.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland faced calls to resign from anti-gambling advocates and progressive crossbench MPs who want a ban on ads after this masthead revealed Sportsbet made significant financial contributions to her election campaign.
Crackdown
The government has signalled a crackdown on gambling ads, which polling shows are unpopular with voters. As Labor has spent months waiting on the committee’s report, the Coalition moved ahead of the government by announcing it would ban ads around sporting events.
The measure has proved one of opposition leader Peter Dutton’s most popular policy announcements and the opposition has tried to use the issue to embarrass Labor on the floor of parliament, upping political pressure on a harm reduction issue that would ordinarily attract less attention from the market-oriented opposition than the more interventionist Labor Party.
The government is expected to move quickly to respond to the inquiry’s findings and announce new policies.
The biggest cause of gambling harm in Australia is poker machines – most problem gamblers in treatment have machine-related addictions. But many gambling harm experts say gambling advertisements of any description can encourage young people and those with existing gambling problems to seek out betting when they would otherwise abstain.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Earlier this year during the hearings into the harm on online gambling, Tabcorp advocated for a ban on broadcast advertising, with chief executive Adam Rytenskild dubbing it a “line in the sand” moment for the industry.
While rivals have accused Tabcorp of taking this position to protect its market share, they concede that the public is opposed to the proliferation of betting ads.
In gambling advertising figures, millions of dollars is unaccounted for through sponsorship of stadiums, sports clubs, and sports competitions, as well as podcasts. When considering these figures, advertising sources believe the total figure spent by the wagering sector blows out to more than $600 million a year.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland welcomed the tabled report on Wednesday, and said the government will now review the committee’s 31 recommendations.
“The government will now consider the report and its recommendations in full, and in consultation with key stakeholders, before outlining proposed reforms.”
Coalition communications spokesman David Coleman noted the inquiry recommended policies similar to the opposition’s and said the Coalition would consider any legislation put forward by Rowland.
Independent MP Zoe Daniel, who has been campaigning for a full ban, said: “Given the committee has acknowledged the extent of the problem, the government should act now and ban all gambling advertising wherever it appears as soon as legislatively possible.”