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Gambling normalisation starts young, and advertising is a major culprit. The federal government should ban all gambling advertising and inducements. That would go a long way to reducing Australians’ excessive exposure to gambling. Pokies and online betting are particularly addictive and harmful, leading to serious harm for hundreds of thousands of Australians. The industry contends that stronger regulation would push gamblers towards illegal gambling websites,259 which lack consumer protection measures.260 But the risk of illegal gambling is small compared with the known harm of the current environment.

• Other forms of gambling can undoubtedly be harmful, but are either lower risk113 or less common,114 so receive less attention in this report.
• This recent history makes Tasmania’s current pokies reforms all the more remarkable (see Box 6 in Chapter 3).
• There are few measures in place that directly prevent gambling harm.
• Pre-commitment with maximum loss limits would prevent things getting out of hand.

Every jurisdiction has work to do in preventing gambling harm, and reform will be easier and more effective if jurisdictions coordinate their efforts. But that shouldn’t mean delaying state-based reform efforts, or waiting for laggards. If some jurisdictions fail to step up, others should push ahead without them. Gambling normalisation starts young, and sports betting advertising is a major culprit. The federal government should ban all gambling advertising, sponsorships, and inducements. Chapter 2 shows that governments have failed to take the necessary steps to prevent gambling harm, mainly because of the political risks of taking on the industry and its allies.

NSW has a particularly big job, with a lot more gaming machines than any other state (see Figure 3.3), and the majority requiring an upgrade or retrofit to enable limit setting. More importantly, the central monitoring system in NSW is only one-way (rather than two-way, as it is in other states), and a two-way system is needed for state-wide pre-commitment. While many of the implementation challenges are greater for NSW, so are the benefits.

Community & Partnerships

The federal government should assemble a National Taskforce and consider financial and other incentives to bring everyone to the table. 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. 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. There are two main reasons that Australian gambling regulation is so weak. The first is that state governments rely on the tax revenue from gambling.

1.1 A mess of rules that do not prevent harm

The gambling industry’s political power lies in its ability to influence elections. They can make their presence known locally, with pokies providers in almost every electorate, stoke community fears about loss of jobs and services (Chapter 4), and they exert financial influence too. There are few measures in place that directly prevent gambling harm. Mandatory pre-commitment with upper limits on losses could provide that safety net (see Chapter 3). This report mainly focuses on reducing the harm caused by pokies and betting. 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 narrative was often harmful and derogatory, particularly from certain media and public spheres. Visit our support tools page to find out about other services and supports that are available. This includes counselling, help managing your finances and information about supporting others. Whether you are registered with BetStop – the National Self-Exclusion Register or still considering it, there are many other supports available if you want to take control of your gambling. You can nominate someone you know to support you while you are self-excluded.

This makes the ban on all gambling advertising and inducements (Section 3.1.1) all the more important. These recommendations would make gambling much safer, but they will take several years to implement. In the meantime, governments should improve support services to help those suffering harm now. If Australian governments are serious about preventing gambling harm, they will need to bolster their efforts and take action to both reduce the pervasiveness of gambling in Australia and make gambling safer. 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). And gambling donations show a pattern of spiking when the ‘political heat’ rises, on pokies reform in particular (Figure 2.3 and Box 2).

While the policies being debated were more focused on money laundering risks than gambling harm, both major parties brought policies to the table. The gambling industry will push back on these reforms by denying the problems and stoking community fears. But this report shows that their trumped-up claims don’t withstand https://wavetechglobal.com/how-to-become-a-casino-dealer-australia/ scrutiny. 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. Interactive gambling services such as online casinos, online slot machines and online wagering services that accept ‘in-play’ betting on sports events are prohibited by the Australian Government. ACMA is the government body responsible for the regulation of online industries in Australia.