Australia has the highest gambling losses in the world, according to a new report that calls on governments to stand up to “vested interests” and implement a complete ban on gambling ads and limits on betting online and at the pokies. Source: ABC News.
The Grattan Institute report, A Better Bet: How Australia Should Prevent Gambling Harm, says Australia has the highest gambling losses in the world because governments have taken “a lax approach to regulating gambling” and “let the gambling industry run wild”.
It notes past reform pushes have failed “because of well-funded, coordinated attacks by vested interests” and that has led to big losses.
Australians lost $24 billion gambling in 2020-21, the report notes.
Our average annual losses per adult ($1635), it suggests, far exceed the average in similar countries such as the US ($809) and New Zealand ($584).
The Albanese Government is under pressure to reduce the social harm caused by online betting, after a Senate inquiry released last year found that the torrent of advertising aimed at children, especially during sports events, was grooming young people to gamble.
The inquiry suggested a blanket ban on gambling advertising within three years, but media companies have been fighting the proposed ban, and there have been concerns the Government might introduce a watered-down version of the proposed ban in response.
About 8 per cent of Australian adults placed a bet at least once a month in 2022, and overall losses on online betting grew from $3.6 billion in 2008-09 to $5.8 billion in 2020-21.
Grattan’s report says it is time governments stand up to online betting and gambling operators, “rebutting their self-interested claims”.
Grattan’s deputy program director Kate Griffiths, who was also one of the report’s authors, says the report focuses mainly on pokies and online betting, which have been found to cause the highest gambling losses in total.
Ms Griffiths said gambling “causes harm not just to the gambler themselves, but to families, communities and to the broader Australian society, in fact, because we all pay those costs”.
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