This article is an instalment in a new series, Punted, on the government’s failure to reform gambling advertising.
“I’m not convinced that complete prohibition works,” Government Services Minister Bill Shorten told the ABC’s Q+A as justification for Labor’s all-but-confirmed decision to water down restrictions on gambling advertising, which were recommended by the party’s own inquiry.
Apart from displaying his lifelong talent for sincerely believing whatever it is his leader says at the time, Shorten appears to be in a shrinking minority of people who believe the government’s proposal is adequate.
Labor MPs
Perhaps the most important cohort Labor leaders need to convince is their own colleagues. Backbencher Mike Freelander told the ABC over the weekend that “we’re being softened up and pummelled by the gambling industry … The ministers who are talking are just repeating the language of the gambling lobbyists.”
Freelander added it was “disgusting” the gaming industry was briefed on government plans “long before caucus was”.
Then there’s the added sting that the recommendations for a full ban on gambling ads came out of an inquiry that was the last political act of the late Labor MP Peta Murphy. Jodie Belyea, who won Murphy’s former seat of Dunkley, has also pushed for a full ban, as has first-term Boothby MP Louise Miller-Frost.
Victoria’s Gaming Minister Melissa Horne, meanwhile, said it would be “nothing short of disgraceful” if the Albanese government didn’t ban all gambling ads, calling on the ALP to “adopt each and every” recommendation of the Murphy inquiry.
(Former) Liberal MPs
While he joined the pile-on after it was revealed the government was forcing anyone briefed on its gambling proposals to sign non-disclosure agreements, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has gone pretty quiet on his own modest proposals to restrict gambling advertising.
Not so for his predecessors John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull, however, who signed the Alliance for Gambling Reform’s open letter calling for both parties to take up the inquiry’s recommendations. “Many Australians are alarmed about the proliferation of gambling advertising on our screens and the mounting losses through gambling,” Howard said. “I believe gambling losses are responsible for enormous harm across the community.”
“Our political leaders should follow the courageous example of the former New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet. As an unapologetic sports fan, I am troubled by how advertising is now linked with all our major sporting codes and what message this is sending to our children.”
Perrottet is one of the very few political leaders to take a stand on gambling when it could actually cost him something — and cost him it did. His signature on the open letter appeared alongside those of two former Victorian premiers: Labor’s Steve Bracks and Crikey‘s granddad who hates us Jeff Kennett.
Gambling companies ( …?)
As Bernard Keane has pointed out, for all the talk that Labor is simply rolling over in the face of powerful gambling interests, gambling companies are actually divided on a full advertising ban. Australia’s biggest gambling company, Tabcorp, told Murphy’s inquiry, “There is too much gambling advertising. There should be further restrictions on when and where gambling advertising occurs.” The company has since shifted from offering to voluntarily ban its own TV ads to now supporting an outright ban.
The Australian Hotels Association, whose largess has done so much to limit regulations on gaming in Tasmania over the years, is entirely agnostic on a ban. Clubs Australia, whose NSW branch in particular has been notoriously aggressive and successful in prosecuting its political aims, also claims to want tougher online gambling regulation.
Further, Sportsbet, the largest online gambling firm and the sector’s biggest advertiser, along with Pointsbet and Entain, which owns the Neds and Ladbrokes brands, has criticised the government’s exclusion of shirt and stadium advertising from its proposals: “Excluding jerseys and in-stadia advertising from any live sport ban, as has been reported, would undermine the policy intent of any reforms,” a Sportsbet spokesman told the Australian Financial Review.
Public health experts
Oh yeah, lest we forget, an assortment of boring old public health academics and addiction treatment centres have said the government’s proposal is completely inadequate.
Professor of public health at Deakin University Samantha Thomas, Associate Professor Charles Livingstone from Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, addiction treatment and research organisation Turning Point, former president of the Australian Health Promotion Association Gemma Crawford, First Nations senior research fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research Dr Beau Jayde Cubillo, co-CEO of Financial Counselling Australia Dr Domenique Meyrick, Suicide Prevention Australia CEO Nieves Murray, and many, many more have put their name to calls for the government to adopt a full advertising ban.
Anyone affected by problem gambling can get immediate assistance by calling the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858 for free, professional and confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
