Australia risks losing a whole generation of kids to gambling, as criticisms are levelled at the Albanese Government for failing to implement reforms from a landmark report two years on. Source: Canberra Times.
The “You win some, you lose more” parliamentary inquiry into online gambling and its impacts, chaired by fierce gambling reform advocate the late MP Peta Murphy, delivered 31 recommendations in 2023.
The unanimously supported proposals focused on reducing harm, protecting children and applying a long-overdue public health approach to gambling in this country.
But two years on, gambling reform advocates, health bodies and church groups say the federal Government have been silent.
More than 80 per cent of Australians want a gambling advertisement ban, and parents are sick of turning on the TV only to find their 10-year-olds discussing the game in terms of odds, Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate and Baptist minister Tim Costello said.
“Smoking is legal, but kids shouldn’t be seeing it. Same with gambling. People can gamble, but there’s grooming of kids,” Rev Costello told AAP.
“We now have, with the two-year implementation (delay), a whole generation of kids who only think of NRL and AFL in terms of odds.”
Gambling harms lead to suicides, one-in-four 18-to-24-year-old young men are addicted, 600,000 underage Australians gambled last year, and domestic violence spikes threefold if there is gambling in a family, Rev Costello said.
The nation’s peak body for doctors, the Australian Medical Association, is demanding the Government immediately action all 31 recommendations, accusing it of exposing millions of Australians to predatory betting companies.
Wesley Mission chief executive Stu Cameron expressed deep disappointment in the Government’s failure to act on a bipartisan road map to tackle gambling harm.”
The three say the Government must use its parliamentary mandate to make systematic reforms, including banning gambling ads, implementing a national regulator and treating gambling as a health issue.
A spokesman for Communications Minister Anika Wells said the Government had delivered “some of the most significant gambling harm reduction measures in Australian history”, pointing to mandatory ID verification and banning credit cards for online gambling and launching BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register.
Australians top the list for the world’s highest gambling losses, placing $244.3 billion in bets every year.
FULL STORY
What’s gambling cost? Advocates slam political inaction (By William Ton, Canberra Times)
