Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have stopped watching sport with my sons because of the blanket gambling advertising. It is far too much, is dangerous and destroys the great spectacle that sport should be. Even more so, it wrecks the chance to watch as a family with kids. These are some of the concerns raised by constituents about the corrosive effects of gambling.

Gambling has become so pervasive and normalised that the joy of spectator sport is ebbing away and now children are at risk. Findings from the Australian Communications and Media Authority reveal that online gambling is the fastest-growing segment of the gambling industry in Australia, with more than one in 10 Australians in 2022 having engaged in some form of online gambling over the past six months. The rate of harm among online gamblers is three times higher than among non-online gamblers. In other words, online gambling is more accessible and more dangerous.

The Albanese government is introducing a suite of protections. We have sharpened the messaging by ditching 'gamble responsibly' with phrases like 'You win some. You lose more'. We've introduced monthly financial statements to consumers and BetStop, a self-exclusion register ranging from three months to a lifetime. We initiated a parliamentary inquiry into online gambling, which aims to modernise the protections, curb advertising and tackle offshore casino websites. Gambling is a scourge on society, and the gambling industry is now at risk of losing its social licence.

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