Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill will ensure that gambling entities are more accountable and also prevent them profiting from illegal behaviour. The bill amends relevant legislation to put a positive obligation on gambling companies to report to AUSTRAC if they have reason to suspect a person is paying for a gambling service with money they have obtained illegally. Where a gambler has paid for a gambling service using funds they obtained illegally, the bill enables the Federal Court to order the gambling company to compensate the injured party for damage or loss suffered. This will prevent gambling companies from profiting off the misfortune of others and facilitate a remedy for the victim of the original theft.

This bill targets the unconscionable conduct of gambling companies to ensure that all money they receive from gamblers has not been obtained at the misfortune of innocent parties. It was developed in consultation with Gavin Fineff, a former financial adviser who lost more than $8.4 million of his clients' money through gambling. Gavin was targeted by three of the big online betting agencies, whose predatory practices took advantage of his gambling addiction. I name them here: Tabcorp, Ladbrokes and BetEasy. To be clear, Gavin understands that he did the wrong thing, and he takes full responsibility for his actions. But he also feels that he is not the only one to blame—and I agree with him.

Firstly to Tabcorp. After signing up with Tabcorp, Gavin was quickly promoted to VIP status, assigned a personal customer service manager and offered superior treatment including events, experiences and bonus money to bet with. But Gavin quickly started to lose money—big money—and, rather than offer him support, Tabcorp fuelled his growing addiction with bonus money and tickets to sporting events to encourage his gambling. Eventually Tabcorp did ask Gavin for proof of income, but it was way too late. Indeed, by the time Tabcorp finally asked for Gavin's annual salary and the process was started to freeze his account, he had lost almost $4 million.

All of this obviously raises important questions. Given the size and frequency of Gavin's bets, how is it possible that Tabcorp did not ask Gavin much earlier for proof of income? Indeed, from September 2016 to June 2018, there were 194 times where Gavin deposited $10,000 or more into his Tabcorp account. And it wasn't as though Tabcorp hadn't been put on notice to clean up its act. In February 2017 Tabcorp was hit with a record $45 million fine for breaches of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing law. That fine, believed to be the biggest in Australian corporate history up until that time, was on account of Tabcorp failing to alert regulators to reports of suspicious behaviour on 108 occasions over more than five years.

Regrettably, though, Tabcorp wasn't the end of things for Gavin, because there were plenty of other predatory gambling companies ready to knock on his door. Indeed, about three weeks after his Tabcorp account was frozen, Gavin was contacted by a representative from Ladbrokes, who offered to sign Gavin up with a superior experience including thousands of dollars in bonus bets. When Gavin disclosed that his Tabcorp account had been frozen, the Ladbrokes representative didn't bat an eyelid and instead facilitated an account under a different name. Gavin was never asked for identification and again he was never asked for proof of income. He lost $700,000 in just 20 months. Nor was Gavin asked up-front for identification or ever asked for proof of income.

Just a few minutes after signing with Ladbrokes, he was again contacted out of the blue by yet another gambling company, BetEasy, who set up an account for Gavin and gave him $50,000 in free bonus bets, all of which he lost within the space of 45 minutes. Over the next 16 months, Gavin lost approximately $3.6 million with BetEasy. All of that makes for a remarkable story of personal exploitation, apparent collusion between gambling companies and likely criminality by multiple people. Undoubtedly, such companies are preying on financially and emotionally vulnerable members of our community and must be held accountable for their unconscionable and unethical behaviour.

Surely Tabcorp, Ladbrokes and BetEasy should have known that Gavin's gambling was suspicious. Gavin certainly thinks so and feels he was deliberately targeted by these companies because of his addiction. Certainly the evidence points to that, and I, for one, believe him. I also acknowledge that, despite knowing it may be too late for him, Gavin is prepared to admit his errors and fight for reform so others don't have to go through what he and his victims went through. As Gavin himself admits:

The fact is, I lost $8.4m in less than 4 years and most of that was other people's money. It belonged to 33 beautiful people, 35 if you include the money I took from my daughter and son as well. Not one of these people authorized the use of their money for my gambling, it was all used without their consent or knowledge. These matters are the focus of a criminal investigation by the North Shore Police Area Command, which I support. My actions were horrible, and I accept the punishment from authorities.

So, in closing, let's wrap some context around this. Australians are the world's biggest gambling losers per capita, which is worrying in itself, but even more alarming when considering recent statistics show significant increases of gambling engagement and losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, according to the Australian Institute of Family Studies report into gambling in Australia during COVID-19, one in three surveyed participants signed up for a new online betting account during the pandemic. But, despite this, Australian online gambling companies have still not linked their daily betting limit and exclusion safeguards, and the federal government has still not taken decisive action to prevent Australian gamblers from accessing illegal overseas gambling sites.

And of course poker machine harm remains unaddressed at the state and territory level. For instance, the imminent changes to poker machine regulation in Tasmania explicitly exclude any harm minimisation measures, like $1 maximum bets, slower spins, tougher fines for venues which flout the law and the banning of addictive features like false wins. This is despite Tasmanian figures which reflect the national trend, showing poker machine losses, compared with the same time last year, as being up 23 per cent in September, up 20 per cent in August and up 20 per cent in July.

That's a lot of numbers. So I ask members to please remember the human side of this. There are tens of thousands of gamblers who want to cut back or walk away, but they are addicted, and each one is a precious person—someone's mum or dad, son or daughter, brother or sister, loved one or work colleague. We really should be doing everything we can in this place to help those people, and this bill promises that.

I now invite the member for Mayo, who will be seconding the bill, to say a few words in my remaining time.

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