Inquiry recommends ban on gambling advertising

The Foundation has welcomed the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm.

Released this morning, the 31 recommendations are consistent with the Foundation’s public health approach to gambling harm and supported by Foundation-funded and other publicly available research, and the insights of people with lived experience.

Of particular note is Recommendation 26 (5.148):

The Committee recommends the Australian Government, with the cooperation of the states and territories, implement a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling, to be introduced in four phases, over three years, commencing immediately:

• Phase One: prohibition of all online gambling inducements and inducement advertising, and all advertising of online gambling on social media and online platforms. Removal of the exemption for advertising online gambling during news and current affairs broadcasts. Prohibition of advertising online gambling on commercial radio between 8.30-9.00 am and 3.30-4.00 pm (school drop off and pick up).
• Phase Two: prohibition of all online gambling advertising and commentary on odds, during and an hour either side of a sports broadcast. Prohibition on all in-stadia advertising, including logos on players’ uniforms.
• Phase Three: prohibition of all broadcast online gambling advertising between the hours of 6.00 am and 10.00 pm.
• Phase Four: by the end of year three, prohibition on all online gambling advertising and sponsorship.

Addressing the normalisation of gambling, especially sports betting, is a Foundation priority that reflects growing community concern about the impact on young people. Saturation levels of gambling advertising, sophisticated marketing strategies and inducements such as cashback offers and multibets encourage risky betting and are associated with high levels of harm, and have led to 18-24-year-old men becoming the largest group of sports bettors in Victoria. Of course, they are part of the first generation to have grown up surrounded by betting promotions.

Our Love the Game program is Australia’s largest and longest running initiative to combat the normalisation of sports gambling, with more than 700 professional and community sporting club partners in a range of codes across the state. Partners are united against sports betting promotion, reducing the exposure of young people to sports betting promotions, and equipping them with the knowledge and skills to think critically about gambling.

The report references the Foundation’s February 2023 Discussion paper: Gambling harm and the online gambling environment and Reducing gambling harm in Victoria: Outcomes framework 2022.