Shocking new figures have revealed Australians lost more than $32 billion to gambling in 2022/23, up $8 billion on just five years earlier. Gambling reform advocates say the horrifying numbers make the case for reform even more urgent.
Analysis from the Queensland Treasury has found total gambling losses nationally for 2022/23 were more than $32 billion, an average of $1555 per Aussie. The Treasury says the only previously available national gambling loss figures were for 2018/19, where we lost a total of $25 billion.
The figures should probably come as no surprise, given we suffer more gambling losses per capita than any other nation on Earth – and by a considerable margin.
Gambling is so ubiquitous in Australia that children can quote sports odds, we have a public holiday for a horse race and most of us are only a few minutes’ drive away from our nearest pokies venue.
Watching sport on TV here can often feel like you’re really just watching gambling ads with a little sport mixed in.
The fallout from gambling harm is a pressing public health issue, and is linked to poor physical and mental health, poverty and homelessness, criminal activity, family violence, and suicide.
Calls for change
Anybody who’s travelled overseas can tell you gambling is much more strictly regulated virtually everywhere else. And Martin Thomas, CEO of the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR), says that needs to change.
“Australians lose more to gambling than any other nation in the world because we have a grossly inadequate regulatory regime in which the gambling industry has been allowed to operate virtually unchecked causing devastation to individuals, families and communities,” he says.
AGR is calling on federal and state governments to implement all 31 recommendations of the 2023 You win some, you lose more report conducted by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
Among that report’s recommendation are a phased ban on gambling advertising and the introduction of mandatory cashless gambling cards at poker machine venues which have pre-set loss limits.
Polling from political lobby group Red Bridge shows that 72 per cent of Australians are in favour of a full gambling ad ban.
AGR says frequent exposure to gambling advertising normalises gambling participation, leading to early uptake of online gambling and can encourage impulse betting and wagering larger and larger amounts.
The government has yet to provide a formal response to Ms Murphy’s report despite it being released more than a year ago, a fact that the ABC reports is causing disquiet among Labor MPs.
Communications minister Michelle Rowland is overseeing the government’s response but has faced accusations of being too close to gambling industry figures, after it was revealed that she had accepted donations from gambling giant Sportsbet and attended a lunch with gambling executives.
“The Albanese government has been sitting on the recommendations of the Murphy report for more than 14 months now, it is time for action, it is time for political leadership to protect Australians and especially to protect our children who are being groomed to gamble by a ruthless, profit-hungry industry,” Mr Thomas says.
Would you support a ban on gambling advertising? Do you think we’re too lax with gambling regulation in Australia? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: How to help a loved one with a gambling addiction