Watching and betting on sport has become a costly pastime for many young Australians and new research shows that problem gambling is increasing among people aged 18 to 34.
Max Davies, 19, works in hospitality and lives at home with his family.
He spends upwards of $50 a week on sports betting — an amount he knows is too much.
"Money-wise it's not good, because I've lost a lot of money from it," Mr Davies says.
"But then it's the draw of the winning and the possibility of winning that all back, because you can win so much.
"All my mates gamble and some are worse than others, so it's very big, especially for my age [group]."
More women punting
Sports betting agencies spent more than $287 million advertising their products in Australia in 2021, an increase of nearly $16 million on the previous year.
Recently published research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows this level of advertising is having a huge impact on Australian punters.
A study by the Institute's Australian Gambling Research Centre (AGRC) found 34 per cent of people increased their betting after being exposed to wagering advertising.
Twenty-nine per cent placed bets on impulse after exposure to the advertising and 28 per cent changed what they bet on or tried new forms of betting.
AGRC executive manager Rebecca Jenkinson says the study shows sports betting advertisements are having the greatest impact on those aged 18 to 34.
"We found around 1 in 5 young women bet for the first time after seeing or hearing an ad and 1 in 7 young men," she says.
"Young men aged 18 to 34 are much more likely to gamble on all of the products that we look at — they spend more money, they gamble more frequently and they're more at risk of harm.
"So while young men are certainly the focus of a lot of our work … we are starting to see more young women gamble on these products."
Associate Professor Nicholas Carah, director of Digital Cultures and Societies at the University of Queensland, says sports betting agencies are flooding traditional and social media with ads for a very specific purpose.
"What they're trying to do is build this larger social norm that sports betting is how you enjoy sport, how you watch sport, how you watch sport with mates," he says.
"In order for a harmful industry like this to operate it needs to make itself more broadly socially normal and acceptable."
That winning 'ideation'
Watching the Friday night footy across the couch from Mr Davies is Ethan Fletcher, 19, who also admits his gambling habits could be unhealthy.
For both young men, "same game multi-bets" are their poison.
The system allows punters to generate their own odds by wagering on nearly every aspect of a single game, from total points scored to a particular player's possessions, in one bet.
"The more odds that you get [increase] the chances of you winning more money, so you can turn two dollars into $200 or $500 — so it's that ideation of 'I can win,'" Mr Fletcher says.
"I'm always focused on the bet if I have one on something like that.
"Especially towards the end of the game, quarter four or something, then you're like, 'I only need this thing now' and you're constantly trying to watch to make sure they achieve what you need."
Per capita, Australians lose more money gambling than any other nation in the world.
Annual losses are estimated to be about $25 billion.
Mr Fletcher says the country's love affair with gambling has rubbed off on the next generation.
"As you grow up you get accustomed to watching everyone else do it, so you become the same person that you've been watching," he says.
"You just do it with your mates because you think it's a custom of the culture of our living."
'Tuning and targeting'
Dr Carah says part of the problem with the new wave of social media advertising is that sports betting agencies can "accumulate enormous amounts of data" from people's profiles.
"Sports betting advertisers know what codes they're into, who their favourite players are, who their favourite teams are, and that's showing up in the particular ads they're seeing and the particular kind of deals or bets or bonuses that they're being offered," he says.
"That's what makes it so much more harmful than it used to be — that you have this effort to both normalise it at the exact moment you have this enormously powerful automated machinery for tuning and targeting this kind of advertising."
A federal parliamentary inquiry is already looking into online gambling and its impacts.
Researchers are hoping it recommends legislation to limit sports betting advertisements.
"The evidence from our research points to the need for further restrictions, because we are seeing that strong link between exposure and riskier behaviour and harm," Dr Jenkinson says.
A spokesperson for the sports betting industry's peak body, Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA), says Australia's wagering environment is one of the strictest in the world.
"RWA's members take gambling harm seriously and support evidence-based measures to promote safe habits and reduce numbers of people experiencing gambling harm," the spokesperson says.
"RWA is committed to working with the government, sporting codes, and other impacted groups to ensure any reform is considered, balanced and proportional."
