Cross-party calls from Labor and Coalition MPs are doubling down the pressure on the Albanese government to impose a blanket ban on gambling advertising after reports that it will introduce caps instead of a total ban.
Five anonymous sources who had been briefed on the reforms revealed details of the government’s plans to The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) earlier this month. The government is proposing a cap of two gambling ads per hour on each channel up until 10 p.m. and a ban on ads of this nature before and after live sports coverage.
“It’s a position that’ll piss everyone off because the purists won’t get a ban and will still see ads on TV, but the sports and media companies will lose a big chunk of money,” one source told the SMH, flagging the possibility of compensation for media and sports bodies.
If the Labor government were to impose these caps, it would risk backlash from community campaigners and its own backbenchers, who want it to impose the total ban recommended last year by a bipartisan committee led by late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who declared that partial bans would not work after a surge in online bets to about $10 billion a year.
Labor MP Mike Freelander, who is also a doctor in western Sydney, has said that the surge in gambling advertising is compounding the financial hardship in Australian households at an already difficult time. “It’s a way of transferring billions of dollars from poor people to wealthy people”.
“I strongly believe the only thing we should be doing is a total ban on the advertising,” said Freelander. “The gambling companies are engaging people at a very young age. It is addictive and very difficult to manage, and if it is on TV all the time, you can’t escape it”.
Victorian Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou, who served with Murphy on the committee that wrote the gambling report, said the recommendations should be implemented in full. “I see no reason to equivocate any further or to prolong this. All the evidence is in, and we know what we have to do, and we should do it,” she said.
“Peta led this with great passion, as someone who really cared about the impact of online gambling,” she said, insisting a total ban “would be a fitting way to honour her legacy”.
MP Keith Wolahan, the Liberal member for Menzies in Melbourne, has also stood by the call for an advertising ban. “Peta’s call for reform is needed now. Online gambling is peddling more than false hope – it is tearing families apart and driving them to food banks,” he said.
Nationals MP Pat Conaghan said families were “sick and tired” of seeing and hearing the gambling ads during sports events and other programs. “I think Peta Murphy would be very disappointed with the lack of action within Labor and I don’t understand why they would not just implement the recommendations,” he said.
He said the idea of limiting ads to two per hour was not enough to stop the problem. “That’s still exposing people to harm, and it is still exposing children to that harm,” he said. “I’d like to know the reason why Labor’s not going to support the full phase-out over three years. It’s just common sense”.
Murphy’s widower, Rod Glover, has implored Albanese to listen to the late MPs recommendations. “This is the closest thing that she’ll ever get to being in cabinet. So she won’t be in the room, but for the people in the room, I hope that they’re imagining she is,” Glover said. “They know where she stood on this. Her report was not an ambit claim. Her main argument is really simple: in a really hard trade-off, you’ve got to put people first and think about what kind of future you want to create”.
“This is her final game if you like, and that game plays out in cabinet on Monday and in what happens over the coming weeks. And the question will be whether her team can carry it over the line”.
Former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard has also called out the government for not taking more swift action to impose a ban, suggesting that Albanese needs to step up in the same way Malcolm Fraser did in 1976, when tobacco ads were taken off air. “We hear a lot of talk from the prime minister of that leadership, but he’s got an opportunity to show leadership on this issue,” Howard said.
“It’s just everywhere. I mean, I follow a lot of sport: I watch rugby league, I watch cricket, I watch the Olympics, I watch it all, and it’s just everywhere. It’s too much”.
“The spread of gambling and the social harm from it is a serious issue for our country,” Howard said. “It’s particularly bad for young people who are so easily tempted”.
Albanese has called the saturation of gambling adverts “untenable” but has still made no commitment to a blanket ban. He also condemned Howard for not speaking out on the matter until after he had left politics. He also claimed that he had done “absolutely nothing” on the issue when he had the chance in power.
Gambling ads during live sports are currently banned five minutes before and after play, between 5 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. After 8:30 p.m., these ads can appear before and after play and during breaks in play.
According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, more than a million gambling ads appeared on free-to-air television, radio, and online from April 2022 to April 2023, costing a reported $238 million.
Studies suggest that 7 in 10 Australians believe there are too many betting advertisements and that gambling advertising on television should be banned, and parents, in particular, are concerned about their children’s vulnerability to gambling advertising. It is estimated that Australians lose over $25 billion each year to gambling, the highest per capita spend in the world.
The news isn’t all grim for those opposing gambling advertising; Labor is reportedly set to support a ban on betting ads on social media and other digital platforms.
An official announcement of the government’s plans on this matter is expected within weeks.
