About one in three Aussie kids are rolling the dice on their futures, losing more than $18 million to gambling each year.
The latest findings released by think tank the Australia Institute show 30 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds gamble, with the figure spiralling to almost half of 18 to 19-year-olds.
That's 600,000 teenagers gambling each year.
Gambling reform advocates say it's the result of a deliberate attempt by the gambling industry to groom children to gamble from a very young age.
"There is evidence that the gambling industry targets kids as young as 14 years old through social media, urging them to download gambling ads, and the saturation of gambling ads around our major football codes is also luring children to gamble," Alliance for Gambling Reform chief executive Martin Thomas said.
"It is both alarming and tragic to understand that the number of teenagers gambling under the legal age would fill the MCG six times over."
The alliance is calling on all candidates in the upcoming federal election to commit to the recommendations made following the Murphy inquiry into online gambling, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
The inquiry's 2023 report found a "torrent" of advertising and simulated gambling through video games was grooming children to bet and encouraging riskier behaviour.
It recommended a total phase-out of all gambling advertising over three years.
Despite the review being unanimously backed across parliament with no dissenting remarks, Labor has dragged its feet on gambling reform despite increasing pressure to ban betting ads.
Australians already rack up the world's highest gambling losses, placing $244.3 billion in bets every year.
Rates of gambling have increased since 2019 and average yearly losses rose from nearly $2000 per person to about $2500, according to the Australian Institute report.
The nation's total gambling losses at $31.5 billion rivals the entire Northern Territory economy and is greater than the $21 billion lost to gambling in all of Las Vegas, the report added.
National Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858
