Australians Losing Billions Via Gambling & All Those Sports Betting Ads
Australians lose more money gambling per capita than any other nation on earth.
“Gambling is a major public policy issue in Australia, affecting the health and wellbeing of individuals and families in a range of ways. Estimates suggest that Australians lose approximately $25 billion on legal forms of gambling each year, representing the largest per capita losses in the world (Letts 2018; QGSO 2022).”
I watch some of those funny ads promoting gambling on TV and I wonder who their target audience is laughing at? ‘Stupid is as stupid does’, someone in the movies once said. There is public pressure on at the moment to ban gambling ads from our screens. Apparently, plenty of Aussies would like to see them disappear from our screens. The argument from some quarters against their demise is that our TV networks and sporting clubs would disappear along with them because they have become financially dependent upon the revenue from them for their survival. This is poppycock, of course, because they existed prior to the advent of this flood of gambling ads and corporate bookmakers came along. Sporting clubs will adjust, as they always have to whatever the current economic climate is.
The demise of free to air TV networks is another matter, as they face obsolescence due to a number of factors. One of which is that people are no longer watching their fare in a changed entertainment space. Technology has passed them by and their business model is out of date.
Gambling Costing Billions & Losses Funding The Entertainment Sector
We could nationalise all these corporate gambling online bookies and do away with income tax instead. If Australians love the punt that much, perhaps, their generosity could be put to better use. Gambling losses could be funding health, education and the environment rather than a dysfunctional Channel 7, 9 and the footy codes. I am joking, of course. The freedom to have a bet is not at risk here, it is only the constant promotion of gambling on too many screens at all times of the day. Freedom is not having something shoved down your throat noon and night, that is propaganda. Australians losing annually some $25 billion tells us just how stupid a lot of Aussie blokes really are. Unfortunately, we have populist political parties pandering to the underwhelming performance of parts of the Australian electorate. This can be seen around the failure to bring in fuel standards to stop the pollution of our atmosphere over many years. The LNP has been denying climate change for decades and telling Australians that they can stick their head in the sand and pretend it is all someone else’s problem. There is now a gender divide split down party political lines with blokes favouring the Peter Dutton led team. Women, generally, become mothers and look after their families. These mums spend more time thinking about the wellbeing of their kids. Climate change, pollution from diesel and other car fumes, and the dangers of the nuclear power option are not appealing options for many women.
Likewise gambling ads promoting the punt 24/7 do not make sense for most women in Australia.
Banning Sports Betting Gambling Ads?
PM Albanese is not the most courageous political leader this nation has seen. He did, however, have a go with the Voice and discovered just how racist the white underbelly of Australia really is. Once bitten twice shy, the saying goes. Albanese is a cautious pragmatist and the challenge he sees is hanging onto power vs getting real change done. It will be a softly, softly approach for Albo on the issue of gambling ads and what to do about them.
“Labor’s proposed gambling ad restrictions are “manifestly inadequate”, advocates and health experts have warned, after revelations print ads will be exempted and restrictions on broadcast ads will not apply until July 2026.
But there was some praise for the changes which were expected to include a broad ban on online ads and a ban on inducements, which the Alliance for Gambling Reform said would make a “significant difference” to problem gambling.”
If you have a think about what constructively you could do with a sector generating $25 billion in revenue every year, it may serve the nation better than just pruning it back.
Why Do Punters Bet?
A belief that they are smarter and able to pick a winner via their intelligence is a common causational determinate. Another, I think, is the human need for taking a risk and the thrill of that experience. More recently, neuroscience has come up with the idea of the ‘predictive mind’. It is based on the knowledge that we have more hardwiring in our brains interpreting the limited sensory information coming into us than actual synapses involved in seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling the external world. Our brains make lightning fast predictions about what is happening around us. We have predictive minds and this is why, I think, gambling has held us in its thrall for millennia. To our brains, our mechanisms for interpreting the world, everything is a bit of a gamble anyway. We are attuned to the risk taking mindset biologically. Men are much more inclined this way and get more of a thrill out of risk taking and gambling on the outcome.
“A separate but connected branch of research literature has concentrated on profiling groups most at risk of experiencing harm from sports betting, particularly describing their attitudes and characteristics. As indicated previously, two groups of major concern are men and youth in general (both male and increasingly female). Studies and reviews have consistently found that young adult males are at greater risk of problem gambling (Hing et al., 2015; Williams et al., 2012). Recently, such research has also explored sports betting specifically. For example, Hing et al. (2016) in a quantitative study with a purposive sample of 639 Australian adults, identified key demographic risk factors for problem sports bettors included being male, younger, never married, and living either alone, in a one-parent family with children, or in a group household.”
Obviously, when men marry and have families, risking resources on taking a punt has far more serious consequences for more people than just themselves. Gambling has been shown to be addictive for some and chasing losses can cost relationships, jobs, and damage the lives of families. Interestingly, sports betting ads are thematically similar in that they emphasise humour – that everything is a joke. Loosening the purse strings and opening the wallets is aided by this levity, I am sure.
$25 billion later corporate bookmakers are the one’s laughing all the way to the cryptocurrency bank.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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