With parliament still on winter break, last week’s most explosive revelations in Canberra came from the Senate committee examining the government’s proposed gambling reforms.
Inducements were the big story, with highly unethical (and in some cases criminal behaviour) alleged to have been committed by major gambling organisations to keep problem gamblers throwing money at them, along with ever greater amounts of advertising designed to bring more people into their destructive net.
Australians currently gamble $254 billion each year, and lose $32 billion, more per person than any nation on Earth, and well ahead of the runners-up in the gambling loss stakes, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Evidence was presented last week of everything from illegal drugs, free flights and game tickets, sex workers, VIP treatment and cash inducements being used by sports betting companies in particular to keep problem gamblers gambling – to the point of suicide in some cases – with companies refusing to return stolen money even after those who spent it went to prison.
Three years ago, with bipartisan support, and after a detailed inquiry process, Labor MP Peta Murphy delivered a report calling for the prohibition of gambling inducements, a phased-in blanket ban of gambling advertising across all media (which would have been in effect by now), the establishment of a proper national gambling regulator, stronger consumer protections and a public health approach to the problem, but the Albanese government has belatedly responded with a far weaker set of proposed reforms, pleasing no one.
Anna Bardsley, co-founder of Gambling Harm Lived Experience Experts, was incendiary last week about the government’s failure to deliver the solutions called for in the Murphy Report.
‘It is a government’s responsibility to protect its people, yet it is patently clear that we are instead dealing with the protection of an industry whose entire business model is predicated on harm – an industry that exploits people to the point of extinction.
‘It’s beyond frustrating to know that we have a blueprint in the form of the Murphy Report that could end the exploitation and manipulation of people and that this bill is all we get. Frankly, it’s piss-weak. It’s a piss-weak response to a public health crisis.’
You can do it, Albo
Rev. Tim Costello of the Alliance for Gambling Reform said the whole problem could be solved if Labor MPs were allowed a conscience vote on the issue, with Anthony Albanese being the main sticking point, having strongly suggested that his government wasn’t going to improve Labor’s piecemeal gambling reforms in any meaningful way, despite overwhelming support for this idea from the Australian public.
Costello said it felt like groundhog day to be wasting time debating long-discredited gambling industry talking points.
‘The same arguments that I’ve seen the industry reheating for this inquiry were thoroughly tested, cross-examined and shot down by Peta Murphy,’ he said, noting that members of parliament from across the political spectrum were getting huge amounts of pressure from their own communities to immediately implement the reforms in the Murphy Report, all to no avail.
He said this was due to fear of powerful vested interests, including sports betting companies, sporting bodies and free-to-air TV.
Tim Costello gave the example of a former financial adviser he knew who stole $12.3 million to fund his gambling addiction, and was now facing years in prison.
‘He started gambling as a child at school. We know 600,000 12- to 17-year-olds in the last year gambled – 30 per cent of our teenagers. More are gambling on sport than are playing soccer and basketball combined. He was one of them…
‘He was given free accommodation at Star Casino. He was the TAB’s biggest customer in that time. They were giving him $50,000 bonus bets. He was also Sportsbet’s biggest customer,’ said Costello.
‘And this person, who I haven’t named but who I will be giving character evidence for when he pleads guilty, is just one of tens of thousands of young men. While we have no laws protecting them from inducements, we are failing. While we have no national regulator, we are failing.’
The Greens have said they will not support Labor’s gambling reform legislation in its current form, along with independents such as David Pocock and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. The Coalition says it will demand changes, but hasn’t yet explained what these should be.
Federal parliament returns from its long winter break on Tuesday. Let’s see if Albo’s break has given him any more courage to take on the worst excesses of big gambling, and finally give Australians some meaningful protection from this predatory and highly unethical industry.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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