In this paper, we examine whether gambling participation has continued to increase, since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, or continue to gradually fall in line with a trend that began prior to the pandemic. When applying for credit, a lender or bank will examine your recent financial history and analyse your spending habits, as well as other relevant economic factors, to determine what kind of borrower you might be. Total gambling losses unsurprisingly remain highest in the most populated states and territories. For example, New South Wales recorded the highest expenditure ($9.6 billion or $1,508 per capita), followed by Victoria ($4.6 billion or $882 per capita) and Queensland ($3.9 billion or $977 per capita). Pper adult gambling expenditure in Australia increased by more than 13% from $1,067.73 to $1,200. Gaming machines alone contribute the bulk of these losses at more than $12 billion.

Anger is bubbling at the perceived hypocrisy of teenagers being banned from social media to reduce harm, but still being able to be targeted by gambling ads. Predicting results for gambling purposes involves hypothesis testing, evaluating outcomes, and then reformulating hypotheses repeatedly. This strong investment of self partly explains why we can publicly endorse and encourage an activity in which we know that most, in fact nearly all gamblers lose money overall. The industry exists to financially reward the regulating bodies, the bookies, the industry stakeholders, and a small percentage of professional gamblers. The rest of us enjoy the thoughts of what might be, the social bonds, the behavioural reinforcement schedules, and the ego investment.

2.3 Gambling causes harm

“The Government has gone soft on the online gambling and tech companies, at the expense of the wellbeing and safety of Australians. The Greens have slammed Labor’s capitulation to the gambling lobby by reportedly dropping plans for an online ad ban, saying it will leave families to the “gambling industry vultures”. Access resources for safer gambling, including tools to identify gambling-related harm, manage habits, and seek support. Find information on upcoming VGCCC hearings, including gaming machine applications, disciplinary actions, and casino exclusion appeals. Working towards the development of recommendations to improve referral practices for patrons from gaming venues to gambling help services in South Australia (PDF 1.6 MB) Riley, Orlowski, Smith, Battersby & Baigent, November 2016. A key part of the Alliance’s work is how we work with people who have experienced gambling harm, known as the Voices for Gambling Reform.

If some jurisdictions fail to step up, others should push ahead without them. State governments give away at least $1.2 billion in pokies tax concessions for clubs230 – more than enough to cover the cost of improving support services. Gambling donations flow overwhelmingly to the major parties, who are most likely to form government.162 Clubs and hotels with pokies interests are the biggest gambling donors, followed by casinos (Figure 2.2).

Other forms of gambling can undoubtedly be harmful, but are either lower risk113 or less common,114 so receive less attention in this report. The gambling industry will push back on these reforms by denying the problems and stoking community fears. Federal and state governments should brave the vested interests and work together in the interests of all Australians to make gambling a safer, better bet. That would go a long way to reducing Australians’ excessive exposure to gambling.

Sport

There is a risk that some people in the grip of gambling addiction seek out unlicensed websites in a deliberate attempt to circumvent loss limits. But, under current regulations, legal websites are not much safer than illegal ones for heavy gamblers. Many legal gambling operators do not have effective safeguards in place to prevent harm (Chapter 2). Most prominently, the federal government has taken more than 14 months to respond to the Murphy Inquiry into online gambling, which handed down 31 recommendations in 2023 with multi-partisan backing.

When Parliament returns on Monday, the Senate will debate and vote on Senator Hanson-Young’s referral of gambling advertising to the Senate’s Environment and Communications Reference Committee. Survey of South Australian adults’ (18+) attitudes, beliefs and behaviours regarding sports betting (PDF 1.5 MB)Browne, Bryden, Russell, Rockloff, Hing, Dittman & Lastella, October 2021. If you have lived experience of gambling harm or are an affected other, visit our Voices page. Please share how gambling advertisements have affected your community and why the government must act now to protect Australians from their harm.

Most gamblers’ spending will be unaffected by our proposed maximum limits (Figure 4.4). The federal government should establish a national mandatory pre- commitment system for online gambling, and state governments should implement state-wide mandatory pre-commitment schemes for pokies. This will go a long way to preventing harm from the two most risky and widespread forms of gambling. And disquiet about the proliferation of online gambling harm triggered the 2023 Murphy Inquiry, which made 31 recommendations supported by multi-partisan consensus – a rare feat.

This will be especially important given the roadmap will take several years to fully implement. After decades of failed attempts, some state governments, notably Tasmania, are finally taking action on pokies. Australia should introduce a gambling warning label,201 so that people know when a game contains gambling-like features. This would help gamers of all ages avoid exposure to gambling if they wish, and it may Mega Moolah be particularly helpful for parents to reduce their children’s incidental exposure to gambling.

• State governments give away at least $1.2 billion in pokies tax concessions for clubs230 – more than enough to cover the cost of improving support services.
• It makes it harder for the industry to go after individual politicians, parties, or governments, as it has done in the past (see Chapter 2).
• For example, the federal government could take full responsibility for regulating online betting, while still enabling states to collect online betting revenue through their point-of-consumption taxes.

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