What's Gambling Cost?

Australia dangers losing a whole generation of kids to gambling, as criticisms are levelled at the federal government for stopping working to implement reforms from a landmark report 2 years on.


The "You win some, you lose more" parliamentary inquiry into online betting and its effects, chaired by intense betting reform advocate the late Peta Murphy MP, delivered 31 recommendations in 2023.


The unanimously supported proposals focused on lowering harm, safeguarding kids and using a long-overdue public health approach to gambling in this country.


But two years to the day, betting reform supporters, health bodies and church groups state the federal government have actually been quiet.


More than 80 per cent of Australians desire a gambling ad ban, and parents are sick of turning on the TV just to find their 10-year-olds going over the video game in terms of chances, Alliance for Gambling Reform chief supporter Tim Costello stated.


"Smoking is legal, but kids should not be seeing it. Same with gambling. People can bet, however there's grooming of kids," Rev Costello told AAP.


"We now have, with the two-year application (hold-up), a whole generation of kids who just think about NRL and AFL in regards to chances."


Gambling damages result in suicides, one-in-four 18-to-24-year-old boys are addicted, 600,000 minor Australians bet last year, and domestic violence spikes threefold if there is gambling in a household, Rev Costello said.


"This industry has actually been treated as having a regular social license when it's actually pushing very addictive items," he said.


"We have actually literally given our kids over to sports wagering business as fodder for their earnings."


Vested interests, including the AFL and NRL, business, and the industrial broadcasting networks, had actually stalled reforms, Rev Costello said.


The nation's peak body for doctors, the Australian Medical Association, is demanding the government immediately action all 31 recommendations, accusing it of exposing countless Australians to predatory wagering business.


"Every day of delay indicates more Australians come down with a market that benefits from damage and anguish," AMA President Danielle McMullen stated.


Wesley Mission primary executive Stu Cameron revealed deep frustration in the federal government's failure to act upon a bipartisan plan to take on betting damage. "2 years on, the silence from Canberra is deafening," Rev Cameron stated.


"While the government thinks twice, lives are being torn apart."


The three state the federal government must use their parliamentary required to make methodical reforms, consisting of banning gambling advertisements, executing a national regulator and dealing with gambling as a health concern.


A spokesman for Communications Minister Anika Wells stated she has had several conferences with harm decrease advocates, broadcasters and sporting codes.


He said the federal government had provided "a few of the most substantial gambling harm decrease measures in Australian history", pointing to mandatory ID confirmation and prohibiting charge card for online betting and releasing BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register.


Australians top the list for the world's greatest betting losses, putting $244.3 billion in bets every year.