The evidence is in from social and health services. Advertised gambling devastates lives, destroys families and frays our social fabric, writes Francis Sullivan. Source: Eureka Street.
The Labor Government’s anti-gambling legislation has hit a snag. People on the ground dealing with the fallout and damage from online and broadcast gambling advertising are saying the proposed law won’t work. Enough senators agree, and now the bill is headed for a parliamentary review committee.
The issues at hand are too important to be caught up in political point-scoring. Our legislators need to focus on the needs and welfare of vulnerable people, young and old, who are prey to the manipulations of the gambling industry’s advertising strategies.
Let’s be clear: the prime purpose of anti-gambling laws is to regulate the industry to address the social scourge that decimates individuals, families, and communities.
So any trade-offs between interest groups, including “big business”, “big media”, and “big sport”, must be measured against the broader goal of a restorative strategy to build strong preventative protections and the eradication of incentives that lead to dependency and damage.
At this point, the bill falls short of this goal.
Commercial interests are the only winners in this insidious, blatant strategy to gain maximum advertising impact. Multiple studies, both here and abroad, show that the advertisers’ strategies are working and sports betting is on the rise.
What is also on the rise is the financial destitution, domestic violence, crime, and mental illness in people sadly shackled by gambling dependency and desperation.
Due to gambling advertisements on televised sport, over 600,000 Australian teenagers aged 12 to 17 lost nearly $20 million laying illegal bets. That’s more teenagers than those playing soccer and basketball combined.
This is not some innocent pastime fancy but an entrée into a perilous future often marked by heavy dependency, petty theft, deceit, mental ill health, and suicide. A spiral of despair and devastation that could be markedly reduced if gambling advertising was banned outright.
The evidence is in from social and health services. Advertised gambling devastates lives, destroys families, and frays our social fabric. It should and can be stopped.
By far the majority of our elected representatives instinctively know it. It is incumbent on them to act, not react to vested interests. The fact that we are talking about the welfare, even the mortality, of Australians means we are confronted with a moral question. And that means taking sides to protect people first and foremost.
Fracnis Sullivan is chair of Jesuit Social Services and a director at Mercy Health.
FULL STORY
If we know gambling ads cause harm, why are they still everywhere? (Eureka Street)
