🧠 Plans to try and minimise Australia's gambling addiction have sat on the shelf for two years
Australians are suckers for a punt, and we lose tens of billions of dollars a year to gambling. Estimates vary from $25 to $32 billion a year.
Here at the National Account we've been talking a lot about gambling advertising, given the fact there is a comprehensive solution just waiting to be implemented — but it’s been left sitting on a shelf in Canberra gathering dust.
📄 What is the Murphy Report?
It’s called the Murphy Report, and it lays out a framework for getting rid of gambling ads in Australia. It was written by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
The report was released two years ago, and in that time, Aussies have lost somewhere between another $50 to $64 billion to gambling.
And still we are bombarded with ads — before, during and after sporting events, in our social feeds and on web pages.
🏉 “Culturally captured”?
The Alliance for Gambling Reform’s Tim Costello - a veteran in the decades-long fight to tackle gambling problems - has accused the Albanese government of being “culturally captured” by the gambling and sporting industries.
It points to the fact that the Sports Minister, Anika Wells, is also responsible for gambling legislation under her communications portfolio.
✉️ Crossbench makes a move
On the two-year anniversary of the Murphy Report’s release, members of the crossbench — basically all the politicians who aren’t part of the major parties — have signed a letter to Anika Wells.
They’re calling for her to commit to a ban on gambling ads.
“Online gambling is the fastest growing form of gambling, fuelled by saturation advertising at sporting events and in our media,” the letter states. “We ask for your immediate action … on a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising of online gambling, to be introduced in four phases over three years.”