The Albanese government’s online gambling reforms have been blasted for not protecting children.
Its proposals, which responded to a three-year-old review by a Federal Parliamentary committee, were quietly released during Budget lock-up on May 12.
ACT Independent Senator David Pocock slammed the Government’s plan, describing it as “deeply disrespectful” to the vast majority of Australians who want gambling advertising banned to protect their children.
If the Government was proud of this response, it wouldn’t be trying to bury it on budget day,” Senator Pocock said.
“This is a cowardly attempt to avoid scrutiny of a deeply inadequate response to one of the most significant public health inquiries this Parliament has seen that produced a report that had the unanimous backing of the entire parliament.”
The government does admit that gambling is “a significant public health concern”.
Australians lost over $32 billion on legal forms of gambling in 2023-24.
On a per capita basis, Australians are the world’s biggest losers – about $1,521 per adult. And it is all-pervasive in society.
In 2024, the Australian Institute of Family Studies found that 15 per cent of adults were experiencing or at risk of experiencing gambling harm.
Last year The Australia Institute found that 30 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds gamble, and 46 per cent of 18 to 19-year-olds.
“The 902,717 12-19-year-olds who gamble is more than the 484,490 who play soccer, or the 439,773 who play basketball, which are the two most popular sports among this age group,” it declared in a report on teen gambling.
Young men are far more likely than young women to gamble.
“Communities we work with every day continue to experience financial stress, housing insecurity and relationship breakdown driven by gambling losses,” Mark Gaetani, national president of the St Vincent de Paul, told The Catholic Weekly.
The multi-party Murphy Review, headed by Labor MP MP Peta Murphy, made 31 recommendations in June 2023 which were adopted unanimously by committee members.
Murphy had campaigned hard and enthusiastically on the issue but died a few months later of cancer.
But the core recommendation of the review, a total ban on all online gambling advertising, phased in over three years, has been dismissed by the government.
As a result, predicts Charles Livingstone, a gambling researcher at Monash University, “Australia’s gambling epidemic will continue largely unchecked. And, sadly, young people will continue to form the epicentre of this preventable disaster.”
The St Vincent de Paul Society has added its voice to a chorus of critics.
“The Government has opted for a partial, patchwork regime with time‑of‑day limits, some sport‑related bans and an opt‑out model online that still leaves children heavily exposed and shifts responsibility onto parents and children to navigate complex and often ineffective blocking tools,” Gaetani said.
He insisted that Australian children must not be exposed to the allure of online gambling.
“This means taking strong action on gambling advertising via social media and apps, broadcast radio and television. It’s time for Government to put the safety and wellbeing of our children, adults and families ahead of gambling industry super profits.”
However, the government has watered down the Murphy Review’s proposals.
It will ban gambling ads online except where users have an option to opt out, it will ban radio advertising during school pick up times; it will ban sports players and celebrities in gambling ads; and it will ban betting ads from stadiums and player uniforms.
But these do not go far enough, says the chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, the Rev Tim Costello.
“Not a single parent in this country would ‘opt in’ to their kids seeing gambling ads – that’s why it’s ‘opt out’ – many people will forget or not realise, and it just puts greater onus on parents to always be logging in and opting out of countless apps and sites, it’s ridiculous,” Rev Costello said.
“The government should not claim they are fully protecting kids from gambling advertising by asking parents to opt out. The onus should be squarely on the gambling companies and the platforms.”
Gaetani agreed. “Parents should not be forced to fight a multi‑billion‑dollar gambling industry on their own; the onus must sit with government, powerful digital platforms and gambling corporations to stop advertising and product design that grooms children as a future revenue stream, and to close loopholes that allow easy access to gambling apps and gambling‑like content.”
Online gambling appears to have few friends in Parliament, the media, or social services. So why has it been treated so gingerly by the government?
In an ABC interview Costello blamed “three gorillas” for the government’s “timid” response – “the big gorillas of the foreign sports betting companies, all licenced in the Northern Territory, billion dollar companies; the big gorilla of AFL and NRL, each getting about $50 million now from gambling ads; and the third big gorilla, free-to-air 9 and Channel 7, particularly, and Fox, who all are very reliant on gambling ads.”
While critics of gambling described the government’s response as “overdue and underwhelming”, the industry saw them as “draconian”. Kai Cantwell, an industry spokesman and CEO of Responsible Wagering Australia, said: “This announcement… is a real kick in the guts for the industry”.
He warned that “Today it’s gambling advertising, tomorrow it’s alcohol, then it’s sugary drinks, fast food, critical minerals and who knows what else.”
