Live sports bet advertising has seen its fair share of media coverage recently. Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced new rules to regulate it, the TV industry spun a 180 and promised to ban live odds during play, and a number of experts stepped out of the woodwork to purport the dangers of gambling on Australia’s youth.
With so much focus on gambling, it’s worth taking a look at the figures:
- Australians spend at least $3.3 billion a year on sports betting, and $160.4 billion in total each year on gambling.
- New South Wales has the highest adult per capita gambling habit at $11,773, with Victoria coming a close second among the states with $9956 bet per adult.
- A study of 15,000 Australians by Southern Cross University found that sports betting had risen from almost nothing in 1999 to more than 8% now.
- In 2010, 80,000 to 160,000 Australian adults were shown to be severe problem gamblers, while a further 230,000 to 350,000 were at moderate risk of developing problem gambling.
Gambling in Australia seems to be presenting itself as a problem. Or it has been a problem for some time, and the government has neglected to deal with it. Given the significance of the issue, will these proposed changes really be enough? Or should the focus on change be elsewhere?
Changes to sports bet advertising
In its role representing all commercial networks, Free TV released its proposed industry code on gambling advertising. “All live odds will be banned during play, the commentators and their guests will not only be banned during play and the scheduled breaks, but half-an-hour before and half-an-hour after a program,” said Free TV chief executive Julie Flynn.
The Greens and independent Senator Nick Xenophon say these changes don’t go far enough. “What Free TV is proposing is really quite minimalist,” Xenophon said. “You can still be inundated with live odds before the game, quarter time, half time, you can still have ads whenever there’s a commercial break.”
It seems ‘the people’ are also looking for more significant changes to be made. A recent poll of 1400 Australians found that two-thirds supported a complete ban on gambling advertising, and 84% wanted ads banned during children’s TV hours.
Not in an election year
However, a push by government for more significant change may be unlikely. In Australia, the government revenue from gambling is around $5 billion – or 10% – of total tax revenue.
There are also the TV networks to consider. The TV networks that would lose a considerable amount of revenue if sports bet advertising was banned. The same TV networks that help to shape the way an election campaign is conveyed to the Australian viewers.
Greens senator Richard Di Natale, one of two MPs pushing to ban live odds and gambling ads, said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy “does not want to pick a fight with the TV networks in the lead-up to an election, it’s as simple as that”.
Doing it for the kids
Proponents of change within the government seem to be most concerned about the effect sports bet advertising has on kids. Perhaps with good reason.
The saturation of gambling advertising has been blamed for normalising gambling among young people. Kids watching an AFL game on TV for example, will see 50 separate instances of sports bet marketing, and if they go to watch the match live, that number goes up to 58.
In town for last week’s Responsible Gambling Awareness Week, Jeffrey Derevensky, of McGill University’s International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviours, said research showed 77% of Australian youth had gambled at some point, and 4.5% had a gambling problem.
A recent University of Adelaide survey also found 40% of teens who played simulated gambling games reported a preoccupation or intention to gamble in the future, while ABC’s 4Corners showed that kids as young as 12 are regularly placing bets anonymously online.
Not the real problem
While the sports bet advertising may be unsettling, sports betting is just the tip of Australia’s gambling iceberg. The $3.3 billion spent on sports betting is nothing compared to the amount being spent on poker machines.
From the most recent figures available, sports betting accounted for 2% of the yearly $160.4 billion spent in Australia on gambling. Of that total, $113.5 billion – or 71% – was fed into gaming machines outside of casinos.
Gambling in Australia is a big issue. One that affects families and susceptible youngsters alike. But as critics point out, what will really be done to combat this issue of gambling, by a government that enjoys such a profit from it?
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