Page 1511 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 June 2022
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an unquestionable understanding of the importance of using a data-driven and evidence-based approach to informing policy decisions affecting our community. So, on her behalf, I wish to make the following remarks. This is, I believe, the speech she would have been giving if she were here today.
Australia has one of the biggest gambling markets in the world, per capita. From poker machines to online gambling, including sports betting and horse racing, this is a prolific gambling nation. Australia has the dubious and unceremonious title of leading the world in annual gambling losses per capita—expected in 2021-22 to be over $25 billion. International gambling companies have described Australia as a standout performer over the past two years of the pandemic, with global companies seeing massive increases in customer numbers and in revenue growth. Sportsbet grew its average daily customer count by 86 per cent over 2020, and this was reflected in research from the Australian Gambling Research Centre, which found that one third of people surveyed opened a betting account during the lockdown.
Sportsbet, the largest operator in Australia, with 50 per cent of the market share, saw a 20 per cent year-on-year growth over the past two years, reaching one million average monthly players in 2021 across Australia. Companies are bending over backwards to get a share in the booming Australian gambling market with News Corp set to announce the launch of its own online wagering brand in Australia. News Corp is owned by a consortium of international investors.
Our sports codes are beholden to these companies. AFL, for example, signed a deal with BetEasy for $10 million a year for the next five years. The NRL has gone one step further this year by pocketing $20 million through a deal to allow Americans to gamble on Rugby League matches by the end of the year. The Australian Alliance for Gambling Reform states, “A 13-year-old today does not know a world without gambling ads. Three in four kids in Australia think gambling is a normal part of sport.”
We have normalised gambling through sport while simultaneously banning smoking advertising through sport. But how can this be? There is a major conversation coming in Australia around integrity in sport, but that is for another day. So, while we have the Australian Financial Review publishing multiple articles on the booming wagering market that is Australia, very little care or concern is given to how all this plays out on the ground in our community. The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns saw prolific advertising by the online gambling industry. Ad after ad on free-to-air TV at prime-time news hours as well as ads on social media and on You Tube were excessive. Two to three ads in one ad break were by gambling companies—all offshore, international companies that give nothing, owe nothing and care nothing about this country or this community.
All these ads are directly pitched to men—young men, men with mates, and salt-of-the-earth Aussie men. In 2019, in the ACT 9.7 per cent of our adult population bet on sports or special events in the last year, and 14.3 per cent bet on a horse or greyhound race. In the ACT, statistics show that those who bet on sports and special events are more likely to be male, at 80.2 per cent; are more likely to be below the age of 45, at 80.7 per cent; are more likely to be born in Australia, at 77.1 per cent; and are more
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