ANTI-gambling advocates have called reports that the federal government is set to ignore recommendations from Peta Murphy’s gambling inquiry “bitterly disappointing”.

An inquiry into online gambling harm released its final report in mid-2023. The inquiry was led by former Dunkley MP Peta Murphy, who died from breast cancer that December. The inquiry’s final report, titled “You win some, you lose more”, made 31 recommendations. Last week, Nine newspapers reported that the federal government was considering introducing a two-hour cap on gambling ads for each TV channel. The inquiry’s report recommended a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling to be introduced over three years.

The Alliance for Gambling Reform’s chief advocate Tim Costello has slammed the proposed changes, calling them “disappointing”. “If the reports are true this decision just underlined the power of the gambling lobby and its allies and those interests have trumped the concerns of most Australians,” Costello said. “I met with the Prime Minister once last year and with the communications minister only twice, but apparently this government continues to engage frequently with the gambling lobby and those who profit from the proliferation of gambling advertisements.”

Jodie Belyea was elected to succeed Peta Murphy as member for Dunkley at the March by-election. During her maiden speech to Parliament she would “advocate for the recommendations of the ‘You win some, you lose more’ report”. “Peta drove this report’s common sense recommendations with great empathy and care. She is no longer here to fight this good fight, so it falls on us to meet her political courage with a little bit of our own,” Belyea said (“MP targets housing, health, and gambling”, The Times 8/4/2024). Last week she said she would continue to push for her party to implement gambling reform.

“The government has been working to address the harms associated with online wagering. Measures already put in place to reduce gambling harms include launching BetStop – a National Self-Exclusion Register for online wagering – with over 27,000 people registered to date, banning the use of credit cards for online wagering, introducing mandatory customer pre-verification which requires wagering services providers to verify a customer’s identity before they can place a bet, introducing mandatory minimum classification for gambling-like content in computer games commencing September 2024, and introducing new evidence-based taglines in wagering advertising,” Belyea said. “These are important steps and I acknowledge there is more to do. I will work with the government to continue to implement the reform championed by Peta Murphy.”

In January, The Times asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese if he would implement all 31 recommendations from Murphy’s report. He said “the federal government commits to considering all of the recommendations that are in the report, which is what we do.” (“Murphy’s gambling report considered” The Times 22/1/2024)

First published in the Frankston Times 13 August 2024