Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'You win some; you lose more.' 'Chances are you're about to lose.' 'What is gambling really costing you?' These warning messages are all very familiar to us. They appear at the end of advertisements by gaming companies when they advertise on TV, apps, websites, radio and the like and during football and cricket games. These advertising taglines are mandatory under new rules in the national consumer protection framework and replace the 'gamble responsibly' slogan. One of the new, improved messages is, 'What are you really gambling with?' It's an interesting question and can be answered on so many levels: your future, your marriage, your friendships, your career, your financial security or perhaps even your credit card.

Gambling costs. By its very nature and definition, someone always loses. For many, this isn't a problem. They can afford to lose. That is, they bet within their means and not above it, and they enjoy what they do. In truthfulness, millions of Australians enjoy gaming and wagering and do so in a responsible manner, but for others this isn't the case, and the cost for them is far too high.

The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023 partially answers the earlier mandatory questions I posed—what are you really gambling with? With the passage of this bill, the one thing you won't be able to gamble with is your credit card. The hard truth and reality is that you shouldn't be gambling with money that you don't have. Australia has the highest gambling costs per capita, a total of $25 billion in losses per annum. Moreover, the number of people experiencing gambling harm is estimated to have doubled in recent years, from 0.6 per cent in 2010 to 1.2 per cent in 2019. It's easy in debates such as this to simply glide over figures such as these, but behind each of these decimal points are tens of thousands of Australians. It's not just the person gambling who is affected; it is their partner, their friends, their children and their colleagues. The snowball effect is huge. We've all read about or known someone in our life who's been devastated by problem gambling.

The bill incrementally builds on other measures to minimise gambling harm. I previously mentioned the introduction in March this year of the seven new evidence based advertising taglines. There have been other measures as well. There is now a requirement for monthly activity statements so that consumers can keep track of their online activity. There's been the introduction of nationwide training to give staff tools to assist in identifying and assisting people who may potentially experience harm from gambling. Together these measures help address the government's broader commitment to minimise gambling harm.

The bill is long overdue. Wagering with credit cards was banned from TAB outlets, casinos and poker machine venues in the early 2000s. So it's only natural for this measure, in the form of this bill, to come before us now. The bill will amend the Interactive Gambling Act in three ways. It will prohibit the use of credit cards, credit related products and digital currency as payment methods for interactive wagering services. It will create a new criminal offence and civil provision related to the ban. And it will give the Australian Communications and Media Authority enhanced powers to enforce the ban.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services recommended in its report in November 2021 the ban outlined in this legislation—and for good reason. The same inquiry found that 15 to 20 per cent of customers use credit cards for online wagering. Digital currency such as cryptocurrency will also be prohibited by this bill. This will prevent people from purchasing cryptocurrency with a credit card and then using that currency to gamble. The bill provides the responsible minister with the power to proscribe other credit related payment methods as they come onto the market as a way of future-proofing this legislation and ensuring that it is fit for purpose into the future.

The government recently launched BetStop, the national self-exclusion register for online wagering, which allows people to self-exclude from all telephone and online gambling for three months or up to a lifetime. Wagering companies cannot open an account or accept a bet from people who've self-excluded, and they cannot send them marketing material. The register is the final measure of the National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering.

We are also working with state and territory governments to update the classification rules for online and video games to protect children from exposure to simulated gambling. In June 2023 the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs released its recommendations from its inquiry into online gambling and the impacts on those experiencing harm. The government is currently considering all 31 recommendations from the inquiry and will work with stakeholders to implement further actions to protect Australians from gambling harm.

I wish this bill wasn't necessary, and I wish problem gambling wasn't such an issue in our society. But we all know that it is, and that is why measures like those in this bill are very necessary to keep people safe and, more importantly, keep the people they love and those around them safe. I commend the bill to the House.

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Problem gambling costs Australia more than $5 billion a year, but the true cost is the human cost—the impact on families, relationships, mental health and wellbeing. The Australian Gambling Research Centre has shown that gambling is dangerous for family life, is making people sick and is damaging their most precious relationships. Despite these harms, gambling advertising has tripled in the past decade. Almost 1,000 gambling ads are broadcast daily. Amongst 12- to 17-year-olds, 73 per cent remember seeing a gambling ad and almost a third have admitted to gambling themselves, despite being underage. A clear majority of the community believes that gambling should be discouraged and it is past time for action. So I welcome this bill, because I think it will help make a difference and protect some people from ruining their lives with gambling. The bill will prevent Australians from being able to use their credit cards for online gambling, in the same way they cannot use their credit cards for offline gambling. I simply cannot understand why anyone would support people gambling on credit.

This kind of action is long overdue, and I commend the government for taking this step, but it is just one step. Credit cards are not as large a share of payments in Australia as they once were, and I understand credit protection laws mean that credit cards are held primarily by older, higher income Australians rather than by younger and more vulnerable members of the community. Younger people are a particular concern to me. One of my constituents approached me recently and told me that their seven-year-old had asked them what a 'same-game multi' was. There is absolutely no reason why a seven-year-old in Australia should hear those terms, let alone know them and let alone understand them. The fact that they do shows our regulatory regime is absolutely failing us. Those are the people who are most at risk of ruining their lives from the predation and exploitation of gambling businesses. These vulnerable people are the people we should be seeking to protect with policy interventions.

We should be looking at banning gambling advertising, particularly during news and sports broadcasts, so that children are not exposed to them. We should be banning gambling businesses from making donations to political parties, and we should rework the GST distribution so jurisdictions are not penalised for restricting pokies and gambling. Most importantly, I believe we should establish a federal regulator for the gambling industry which ensures that we have a national approach, that Australians across the country enjoy the same protections and that no gambling businesses are able to evade sensible regulation by locating in a particular jurisdiction. These are the changes we need, and I hope the government recognises this bill is not the destination; it is just one step of a larger journey.

It has now been four months since the House of Representatives inquiry into online gambling reported, and we are yet to see a formal response from the government. The minister has welcomed the report and publicly stated she is working through recommendations with state and territory governments. I am glad of this work and very glad that this report is not going to be yet another report gathering dust and the government is actually dealing with it. But, from my community's point of view, the community does feel that it's time to understand whether the government supports all of the report's recommendations and whether it intends to act on them. I know the government has committed to doing more to protect Australians from gambling harm. The community expects them to follow through on their promises and to do so urgently. There's no justification for delay.

Before I finish, I'd also like to acknowledge that this reform is the result of almost a decade of work done by the House and Senate crossbench, particularly former senators Nick Xenophon, Stirling Griff and Skye Kakoschke-Moore and the current members for Clark, Mayo, Goldstein and Curtin. Getting policy change from the crossbench is a low, slow grind, and those of us here today are building on the foundations they have laid. I thank them.

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

I thank the member for Wentworth.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Collusion from the chair there! I too recognise the contribution that the Independents, particularly the member for Clark, have made on this for a very long time, since 2009 or 2010. I rise to speak on the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023, a bill that demonstrates the Albanese government's commitment to protecting vulnerable Australians from online gambling harms and that will also provide the Minister for Communications with the power to prohibit additional credit-related products as they emerge, as a way of futureproofing the legislation. The introduction of the bill implements recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services from November 2021. The bill expands the Australian Communications and Media Authority's powers to ensure strong and effective enforcement of the new and existing civil penalty provisions under the act.

Since coming to government, we've prioritised addressing the harm caused by online gambling, and I'm pleased that we are taking the next step by introducing this legislation to ban the use of credit cards. These new laws will make it illegal for an online gambling company to accept credit card online. Credit cards were banned for gambling in hotels, clubs, casinos and TAB outlets by state and territory governments in the early noughties, but currently these cards can still be used for online gambling. At the moment people not able to use a credit card at the betting counter at a TAB outlet or a pub can still sit at the same outlet and gamble on their phone on a betting app using a credit card, so these proposed laws will bring online gambling into line with the rest of the gambling industry with that basic premise of not gambling with money that you do not have.

I'm pleased to say the bill also seeks to ban the use of credit related products as well as digital currencies for online wagering. Digital currencies such as cryptocurrency are also prohibited by the bill and it will prevent people purchasing cryptocurrency with a credit card and then using the cryptocurrency to gamble. The bill also provides the responsible minister with the power to prescribe other credit related payment methods that come into the market as a way of future-proofing the legislation, so these new laws will help strengthen consumer protections. Using a credit card for gambling can very quickly lead some consumers into that serious, horrific debt trap, a debt cycle that can be extremely difficult to break and extremely harmful for families and for individuals. Online gambling is such a fast-growing form of gambling, so it's crucial that this loophole is finally closed.

The bill before the chamber will prohibit the use of credit cards, credit related products and digital currency as payment methods for interactive wagering services. It will create a new criminal offence and a civil penalty provision related to the ban and provide the ACMA with enhanced powers to enforce the ban and existing offences under the act.

In 2020, the Australian Banking Association commissioned a survey that showed 81 per cent of respondents were in favour of restrictions on using credit cards for gambling. Fifty-four per cent of respondents stated that their use should be banned altogether. I understand that the data collected in January 2023 by the ABA from the four major banks as well as Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank indicate that more than 775,000 debit and credit cards have had gambling blocks placed upon them by bank customers—775,000! This government is serious about protecting vulnerable Australians from the harm that we know online gambling can cause. Any platform breaching the new rules will face penalties of up to $234,750 for any breach of the new provisions. Industry and consumers will be provided with a six-month transition period from the date of royal assent to change their business and betting behaviours respectively.

Since coming to government last year, we've prioritised work to reduce the harm caused by online gambling, including through implementing the final measures under the national consumer protection framework. This includes the introduction of monthly activity statements outlining wins and losses—something that I appreciate—new evidence based taglines to replace 'gamble responsibly' that go to the heart of the damage that will flow, national consistent training for staff working in online gambling companies and BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register which allows consumers to exclude themselves from all Australian licensed wagering services from three months up to a lifetime. And just last month, mandatory customer pre-verification was introduced, which means that Australians registering for an online wagering account now have to have their age and identity verified by an operator before they can place a bet. I can tell you, as the father of an 18-year-old, I particularly appreciate this. As someone who watches sport and sees gambling ads every single time there's a break in the sport, in the rugby league particularly, I commend this initiative.

I should also note that this week is Gambling Harm Awareness Week in some states of Australia and in the ACT. In Queensland it was held back in July. Gambling Harm Awareness Week is where people are encouraged to talk about the harms associated with gambling and the effects they can have on communities, on families, on friends, on workplaces and on individuals. Gambling, like any other addiction, has very significant negative consequences. Gambling harm is not only about losing money or financial problems. Gambling harm can also include health problems, including emotional, psychological distress or physical issues; issues with relationships with family or friends; problems with work or study; cultural problems; and obviously the all-too-common criminal activity that flows from gambling issues. This year's theme continues to be Talk. Share. Support.

Legislating a ban on the use of credit cards for online gambling will help to protect vulnerable Australians and their loved ones. The risk with credit gambling is that it facilitates people losing money that they do not have. People can lose everything they own to online gambling businesses and then go further into debt through credit gambling. Last year, the Australian Communications and Media Authority found that more than one in 10 Australians have reported participating in online gambling at some stage in the six months prior, and that figure was up from eight per cent in 2020. The Australian Institute of Family Studies released their most recent research into gambling participation and harm in Australia. That study, as a snapshot, shows that at least 73 per cent of Australian adults gambled at least once in the past 12 months and 38 per cent—nearly two in five Australians—were gambling weekly.

Digital technology means that people are able to gamble at any time. Almost half of Australian adults reported betting on sports or racing in the past year. Sports betters gambled, on average, on 2.4 different sports, with AFL being the most common in Australia at 42 per cent, followed by Rugby League at 32 per cent and football, or soccer, at 23 per cent. Most sports and race betting was conducted online, with 42 per cent of people using their smartphones and 22 per cent using a computer. Participants who bet online had an average of two accounts and 19 per cent of them had three or more accounts.

Online gambling has evolved so swiftly that research, policy, regulation and governments have not been able to keep up to prevent the exponential growth in gambling and gambling harm. The lack of regulatory measures to prevent these developments is harming not only adults but, all too often, families and children. We know that people experiencing problem gambling are four times more likely to use credit to gamble than those who are at low risk. According to the same survey, men gambled more often, spent more money and were more likely to be at risk of harm.

This legislation is also in line with community views on gambling. Most Australians expressed concern about the availability of gambling and its impacts on our community, believing—to quote from the report—that there are 'too many opportunities for gambling nowadays' and that gambling is 'dangerous for family life' and 'should be discouraged'. In June of this year, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs released the recommendations from its inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing harm. I thank the member for Dunkley, Peta Murphy, for chairing that inquiry. The government is considering all 30 recommendations from this inquiry and will continue to work with stakeholders to implement further actions to further protect Australians from gambling. I commend this legislation to the House.

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

I thank the member for Moreton for their contribution and also for their generous reflection on the chair.

Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the hard work of the independent member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, in bringing this bill to the attention of the House earlier this year, and also my other crossbench colleagues, who have been vocal on the need for gambling reform to minimise gambling harm. I support the measures taken in this bill to ensure credit cards cannot be used on online gambling platforms, bringing the system in line with the ban on credit cards being used at casinos, gaming lounges and other gambling venues. However, this is just one small piece of the puzzle in tackling gambling harm.

Gambling reform is an issue close to my heart. My beloved late mother, who passed away peacefully in her sleep just over three months ago, had a gambling problem which impacted our families. It was hard for her to acknowledge, let alone overcome and seek help. As she struggled to pay her debt, our family struggled with our own mental health, trying to find ways to extract her from this damaging and addictive behaviour.

My mother's story is just one of the thousands of stories in our diverse electorate of Fowler. The Fairfield LGA, which makes up a large and dominant part of Fowler, has some of the highest levels of gambling in Australia. It has one pokie machine for every 54 people. The Sydney average is about one for every 117 people. As you can see, the concentration of pokies in our city is more than double the average. This costs my community $1.7 million in losses a day to pokies alone.

In 2021, just after COVID, our residents were losing $527 million in pokies—one of the highest pokies losses across Sydney. To put it into perspective, the neighbouring LGA, Liverpool—part of which is also in my electorate—had losses totalling $160 million. I cannot stress enough how gambling impacts our community, in the Fairfield LGA in particular. According to the Fairfield Health Alliance, 60 per cent of people screened by community organisations and GPs indicated that they experience harm from gambling either as a gambler or an affected other. Our multicultural and diverse communities want to celebrate, and 70 per cent of my constituents speak a language other than English. However, language and cultural barriers have also led to a prevalence of gambling problems, with CALD communities found to be especially at risk of gambling harm.

A study conducted by the South-West Sydney Local Health District found that gambling amongst CALD communities is a common activity and that people of Chinese or Vietnamese heritage may view gambling as a way of trying their luck or as a highly popular social activity amongst friends. Additional research in the local area found that many individuals from non-English-speaking backgrounds could not identify when they were experiencing problem gambling, as there was no way to describe it in their own culture. It was only after in-depth discussions with health professionals that they realised what they were going through. And cultural issues such as stigma and shame stop individuals who are experiencing gambling harm from seeking professional help.

Earlier this year, when the pokies were a contentious issue in New South Wales state politics, I heard from one constituent, Trong, who reached out because he wanted me to advocate on this devastating issue that was impacting his family. As he eloquently said, there is a fear of losing face within the Vietnamese community, so such issues are rarely discussed up front, which makes it hard for families to find help for those who are addicted. I can totally relate to this cry for help.

It's not just the fear of losing face but the lack of awareness that sitting in front of a poker machine and hitting those buttons for hours can lead to gambling harm. Gambling is also taking over a new generation who are perhaps moving away from poker machines but going online. When we talk about online gambling, it is not just online casinos but also sports betting, loot boxes and virtual gaming goods. While there is an abundance of data around the detrimental impacts of pokies in our area, there is a lot less data around the impact of online gambling. This is an issue that must be addressed holistically across all levels of government, whether it be pokies, sports betting or even video games. If we don't address this as part of the bigger picture, we are simply putting out one fire with our backs to another. After all, gamblers are able to jump from platform to platform.

This discussion is more pertinent than ever given that it's Gambling Awareness Week this week, I think in the ACT and New South Wales. With the cost-of-living crisis, people are becoming more desperate to make ends meet. We as decision-makers must take action to ensure that our most vulnerable communities are not preyed upon by opportunistic gambling companies, and we must ensure that future generations do not suffer through the same. It's very shocking to see that the Australian Gambling Research Centre shows that one in five Australians gamble weekly, with 38 per cent partaking in race betting, 34 per cent in sports betting and 33 per cent in pokies. In a submission to the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs last year, Fairfield Council shared the gambling harm within the community. The local council launched the Pay to Play Youth Gambling Project, which was used to explore young people's relationships with online gambling in the area. Feedback from the program indicates that young people have very little understanding of the extent of harm that gambling can have and almost no awareness of where to find help or information.

It's also very apparent that sports betting and online gambling sites are relentless in advertising to young people via social media. It's one thing to see a Sportsbet ad during half-time at the NRL but it's another to get numerous ads every day when you are scrolling through your Instagram, TikTok or Facebook. Not only are they targeting young people with ads but companies such as Sportsbet are promoting sports betting and gambling as a social activity amongst youth with their 'bet with mates' feature.

However, it's not just betting companies that are profiteering off our vulnerable. Over the last few decades, gaming has grown from a niche industry to a very common hobby. Forty per cent of young people play video games that have gambling components in which children spend money on loot boxes and virtual gaming goods such as skins, weapons and other game upgrades. I acknowledge the member for Clark for bringing this concerning matter to the House last year. While it does not look like gambling, this has the same psychological effect on a young person's brain to having a slap on the pokies. So, if we are to talk about online gambling, this must be expanded in a broader context. We must start with risk mitigation and reduce, if not completely remove, sports betting advertising on social media for young people.

Gambling harm must be introduced into school curriculums as a mental health and social issue to the same extent as drugs and alcohol and information must be provided. Gambling advertising must also be treated in the same manner as alcohol advertising and must be restricted to young people on social media, where they're at their most vulnerable as they often are unable to be monitored. Education materials and support services should be provided to newly arrived migrants as part of the settlement progress.

I want to make special mention of two particularly inspirational young people from my electorate. Marko Pupovac and Lindsay Tang, two now year 11 students at Bonnyrigg High School, are two individuals who are passionate about gambling reform. They were so passionate they created a gambling intervention proposal for the local council as part of the CSIRO showcase at Fairfield HQ last year. As part of this, they shared their own solutions to gambling problems, with a particular focus on classifying gambling problems as a mental health issue similar to any other addiction. They also showcased clever and practical solutions, including for pokies to show total losses as well as having front-facing cameras on every machine to discourage usage over long periods of time. While I applaud the innovation and ingenuity of these students, I can't help but feel dismayed that this is what young people are focusing on in our area. It should not be the focus of 16-year-old students but the role of the government of the day to tackle this insidious issue.

However, as we have previously seen, politics and gambling often go hand in hand. Sportsbet donated $278,000 to both major political parties last financial year, including two major donations to a Labor minister's campaign. I acknowledge the New South Wales government has taken a principled stance in banning political donations from any club that offers any form of gambling, and I call on the federal government to do the same with betting companies. We need a government that is brave and willing to take a stand for the sake of our future, not governments that can be bought by fundraising dinners at Rockpool.

I note there are concerns that this ban could have unintended consequences, with the main concern being that this could drive problem gamblers to    alternative sources of funding, such as loan sharks and pawnbrokers. It could also see a rise in illegal websites that accept credit based payments, driving problem gamblers underground and further into debt. But we must start somewhere. We cannot stand idly by and watch people simply jump from one gambling platform to another and continue the intergenerational cycle of trauma by passing it on to their children.

I can accept that there is a place in society for gambling. After all, not everyone who gambles is addicted. Many people visit RSLs or bet on footy matches as a form of socialising and recreation. And this is not to say that such clubs and companies do not reinvest into the community through employment opportunities and sponsorship of local events, sports clubs and community organisations. However, there must be enough reinvestment back into the community that it ultimately brings more benefit to the community than it would have received without them. In other words, the investment must be net positive.

Overall, while I don't think this government has gone far enough in addressing the harmful effects of problem gambling, I believe this is a good place to start. The government has promised to do better. The community deserves better from the gambling industry. We will be watching closely and holding the government to account on this.

Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians are the biggest gambling losers in the world. There are other countries that have similarly large gambling cultures and gambling industries, but Australians lose more, on average, than those in the other countries. On a per capita basis, Australians are losing $1,300 per year, a staggering $25 billion a year collectively. And of course we know that for all of those who don't gamble there are many others who are losing thousands and thousands—tens of thousands—in betting.

We know that gambling can cause significant harm to individuals, families and the community as a whole. The number of people who are experiencing gambling harm has doubled in the past nine years. Gambling takes many forms in our community: lotteries, onsite sports betting, casinos, poker machines and of course, in more recent years, online gambling. Online gambling, available on your smartphone or computer 24/7, from your school, work or home, is now causing significantly escalating issues. The rate of harm amongst online gamblers is three times that amongst those who use physical gambling products that involve going out to the venue.

It's for this reason that the Minister for Social Services referred the issue of online gambling harm to the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee, chaired by the member for Dunkley and of which I am a member. The inquiry took up a number of months at the beginning of this year. Throughout the inquiry the committee heard from a variety of stakeholders, including those who identified themselves as problem gamblers, families of problem gamblers, gambling help support services, the gambling industry, the advertising industry, the sports industry, the television industry, and academics with knowledge of the Australian gambling sector and regulations as well as internationally.

Some of the stories we heard were heartbreaking. Many were in the public hearings and so are on record—people who lost tens of thousands of dollars overnight and people who lost their house, their redundancy payouts, their marriages, their jobs, their families and more. There are people who've had to change their entire life to avoid gambling triggers, avoiding sports stadiums, television, radio and social media. We heard from one man, probably around 24 years of age, who told us that he loves sport, but he's a gambling addict, and he's had to change his entire life. He can't watch sport on TV or listen on the radio, because the adverts trigger his addiction. He can't watch sport in a stadium or even at the local club, because of the gambling companies sponsoring teams and adverts at the grounds. He can't play sport at the local clubs and grounds because they have gambling company sponsorship. He can't go on social media because he is targeted by gambling adverts. He can't listen to the radio in his car because of the adverts. He can't watch TV news on commercial channels. He can't go to the pub because of the sporting broadcast with gambling adverts. It's changed his entire life. It's stopped him being able to play or watch sport, which he loves, and it's changed the way he can socialise and interact with his friends. There's a whole range of places he can't go, and he certainly can't contact them via social media.

We need to be clear that gambling addiction is not a personal failing. It's an addiction with the same hormonal feedback systems that drive other compulsive behaviour and addictions, except that this addiction is cultivated by an industry that benefits from it—the bells and flashing lights, the psychological principle of intermittent reinforcement, the inducements to increase your bet, to have another go, to come back after an exclusion. There's 'Bet With Mates', which makes your entire social life through their betting app. This is not an accident. This is a design. It's designed to attract customers and to keep them there gambling.

As the mother of one gambling addict said to us: 'The entire gambling industry is based on making you into a loser. They only win, they only make money when you lose. And no-one is a better customer for them than an addict.' This mother lost her son to gambling. He took his own life. He felt he couldn't control the debts that were spiralling, that he couldn't control his addictions.

The Albanese government takes this very seriously. The report that was handed down earlier this year has a number of recommendations in it, but I'd like to highlight three of the actions that have been taken already. Firstly, the Albanese government is committed to ensuring online gambling takes place within a robust legislative framework with strong consumer protections, including through the implementation of a national self-exclusion register, BetStop. What we heard from academics and from the self-help groups was that the reason that Australians lose so much is not because we gamble in any different way. It's because our regulations are weaker than anywhere else in the world. We heard from gamblers about the difficulty they've had in trying to self-exclude from hundreds of online gambling sites, only to find a new one pop up in their email the next day. Were they selling lists? We were unable to find out, but that's certainly what the addicts themselves thought was happening. BetStop will be the one-stop shop for self-exclusion. It requires licensed phone and internet wagering providers to check whether the consumer has self-excluded before providing their services. Operators are required to promote BetStop on websites, apps and other promotions, and consumers can range their exclusion from three months up to a lifetime. Wagering companies will be banned from sending promotional marketing material to BetStop participants.

Secondly, while advertising was a part of the terms of reference of the committee inquiry, we are already acting on previous recommendations. As of 30 March, the previously legally-required gambling advertising message of 'Gamble responsibly' has been replaced with alternating messages: 'Chances are you're about to lose;' 'You win some. You lose more;' and, 'Think. Is this a bet you really want to place?' While that goes some way to the recommendations of the committee, the committee itself recommended that there be a reduction in gambling advertising over a period of time such that it will be eliminated entirely. This is something that, obviously, the industry is not happy about. Certainly the sports industry and the media industry are not happy about it. But the arguments that were being used were the same arguments that were being used about smoking advertising, and that has managed to be successful, and they didn't go broke.

Thirdly, Deputy Speaker, you may be alarmed to know that, amongst the harms of online gambling, the really significant losses the committee heard about were of the 15 to 20 per cent of Australian gamblers who are gambling not only with money they can't afford to lose, but actually with money they don't have in the first place—15 to 20 per cent of online gamblers are gambling with credit cards. Importantly, the Albanese Labor government is legislating to ban the use of credit cards for online gambling. Credit card gambling is already banned in physical settings like casinos and poker machines, and the legislation to ban credit card betting for online gambling is an important part of limiting the damage.

The Albanese government is committed to ensuring online gambling takes place within that robust legislative framework, and there's a lot we can learn from overseas. There are places in Europe where there is live monitoring of betting. They have a regulator who actually has live monitoring, and they can tell if somebody is spiralling out of control—say, if somebody who has never bet before or has only bet small amounts is suddenly depositing tens of thousands of dollars in an overnight session—and they can actively intervene at the time. This is obviously something that would take considerable effort and considerable resourcing and is something that perhaps we should be looking at.

A lot of the complaints that we heard through the gambling committee were about the advertising. I have to say I don't watch a lot of commercial TV. But, on those occasions when I'm watching commercial TV, particularly around the news, I am absolutely shocked at the amount of advertising that we see. Although it is limited through the Broadcasting Services Act 1992—there are hourly limits for advertising for free-to-air television—it really doesn't feel that way when you're watching it. The commercial television code of practice prohibits gambling advertising during general, preschool or other children-aimed programming from 5 am to 8.30 pm. The code is periodically reviewed. But, I have to say, when you're trying to watch the news and you're seeing Bet With Mates and the celebrities in advertisements encouraging people to go back on, you can really understand why parents are concerned about their children watching the news. Gambling addicts can't even watch the news and see what's going on in the world.

This is a public health issue. It affects Australia so much more than other countries. It is because our regulation has historically been weak, and we need to address all of that. I would encourage anyone listening to have a look at the report. There are some very comprehensive recommendations in there, as well as the setting out of the evidence that we've heard. Looking at this as a public health issue, where we need to look at the health of the community and the damage that is done to the community by this industry, is a really important first step forward. I'd encourage people to read the report.

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023. This bill seeks to prohibit online gambling service providers from accepting payments by credit card, credit related products and digital currency. The Greens welcome this bill. We believe it is an important step towards reducing the awful harm caused by gambling. In the recent decade, we have seen the online gambling industry expand significantly. According to the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Australia lost more money to online gambling per capita—20 per cent—than any other country in the world. Many of these losses came from people experiencing problem gambling.

Gambling causes enormous harm. It can lead to severe financial distress, loss of employment, relationship breakdowns and mental illness. Devastatingly, a recent investigation by the Guardian Australia found that there are an increasing number of young people entering adulthood with depression and anxiety alongside debt because of gambling in their youth. As the prevalence of online gambling continues to rise, it is imperative to establish safeguards that protect children, adults and our communities from further harm. This is why this bill is important.

The bill builds on the recommendations of the 2021 Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services inquiry into the issue. This inquiry showed that the combination of online gambling and credit is extremely dangerous and can compound problem-gambling behaviours. While the Greens support these reforms, we are disappointed that the government didn't follow the recommendations from Financial Counselling Australia and the Alliance for Gambling Reform to include lottery products in the credit ban.

The lottery sector has rapidly evolved into a large, fast-paced online industry, with many services now being owned by megacorporations such as the Lottery Corporation, the Lottery Office and Lottoland. These are corporations that have historically put profit over the wellbeing of customers and communities. The lottery and keno products of today allow people to easily spend tens of thousands of dollars within minutes, causing significant financial losses and other harmful impacts.

In their submission to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee inquiry into the bill, Financial Counselling Australia shared many stories of the harrowing impacts of lotteries, both online and in person. For example, this is Jim's story:

Jim is retired. When he sought financial counselling help, he had moved out of the family house due to gambling related harm. The family had imploded. His wife and children insisted he get help.

Jim's only form of gambling was lottery draws and instant win tickets, i.e. 'scratchies', bought solely from his local newsagency, which ran a lottery franchise.

He only ever paid with credit cards.

He ran up such large credit card debts, that he had re-financed the family home with a very costly reverse mortgage, eroding the couple's life time of hard-earned equity.

A recent episode saw him using his son, Matt's, credit card for lottery purchases. Matt lives overseas and 15 years earlier had taken out a credit card with a $5,000 limit as a "just-in-case" measure. Matt had never used the card. Jim obtained limit increases online resulting in the debt escalating to $30,000. Again, the whole amount was gambled on lottery tickets at their local newsagency.

The children felt betrayed by their father's actions, and relationships were damaged.

…   …   …

After 6 months of couples counselling, John has retired to the family home. His therapeutic counselling is ongoing.

I also want to share Mary's story:

Mary, a single mother juggled caring for her child and working night shift in a hospital. She became addicted to lottery draws including instant lotteries—

'scratchies' again. It continues:

She struggled with this addiction seeking help repeatedly over the years. She paid for her lottery spend exclusively on credit cards and over time had four credit cards maxed out. She presented in financial hardship with over $50,000 in lottery acquired credit card debt. She struggled to afford to pay for her child's school excursions and other activities, and this impacted the child who missed out on these activities and often had to stay behind while the other kids enjoyed the full curriculum activities.

After review of all her available options with a financial counsellor, Mary accepted the decision to become bankrupt. This resulted in her being debt free for the first time in many years. Consequently, her stress levels reduced, allowing her the headspace to full engage in therapeutic counselling for the first time.

Allowing lotteries to be exempt from the ban on accepting credit is a huge omission and error, particularly given that many of these products are also exempt from BetStop and the National Self-Exclusion Register. Gambling harm doesn't discriminate, and neither should regulation. Wherever people gamble—be it at the casino, on lotteries or with a bookie—they deserve the same protections in law. For the wellbeing of individuals, their families and communities, the Greens urge the government to reconsider this exemption and include lotteries in the bill.

We know the damage caused by gambling does not stop at credit payments online, and for too long the Labor and Liberal parties have talked about harm reduction but done very little. The Greens are the only political party with a clear, comprehensive platform to take action on gambling. We want to see a national gambling regulator to ensure a consistent approach rather than just a patchwork of regulation that gambling companies and casinos can exploit. We want to see a universal and mandatory precommitment system to protect those at risk from gambling harm. And we want transparency about the impacts of gambling, starting with clear reporting on which local government areas are hardest hit by gambling companies.

But our plans for gambling reform don't stop there. Good governance of this destructive industry by federal, state and territory governments has long been obstructed by political donations. Investigations by the ABC in 2021 revealed that organisations and individuals linked to the gambling industry poured at least $80 million in political donations into the states and territories over recent years, compared with $50 million disclosed at Commonwealth level up to 2020. It is clear that the gambling industry is buying influence and favour, and the major political parties are only too happy to comply. It is time we stopped political donations from the gambling industry at all levels of government. For too long they've bought policy outcomes that reap them profits and increase misery for so many.

We've been pushing for an end to dirty donations from gambling companies, amongst other destructive industries like alcohol and pharmaceutical companies, for a decade, but the big parties refuse to bite the hands that feed them. Weak political donation laws mean that not only is it completely legal for the government to accept donations from industries that stand to benefit from watered-down regulations, but a lot of the time we don't even know where more than one-third of those donations are coming from. We need to clean up politics. The Greens want to ban dirty donations, cap all political donations at $1,000 and improve transparency regarding donations.

As I said, the Greens welcome the introduction of this bill and the ban on online gambling companies using credit. We believe this is an important step towards ending gambling harm in Australia, but we also know that these measures are just fiddling around the edges of a rotten system. We need a strong, coordinated approach to ensure that gambling companies can no longer inflict pain on our communities. That's why the Greens will continue to push for a national independent gambling regulator, a total ban on all gambling ads, an end to dirty donations and to close any loopholes or exemptions where gambling companies can dodge responsibility.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My father is no longer with us. He died in 2010. He was an alcoholic and he had a gambling problem. His gambling addiction affected the lives of my two younger brothers and me. Nothing has affected my life more than my father's alcoholism and his addiction to any form of gambling he could get his hands on. So this sort of legislation is really important to me, and I can't stand the grandstanding that I just heard from the Greens member for Brisbane. This is personal for me, and it means a lot to my caucus colleagues as well. We are serious about taking action on gambling abuse and interactive gaming in this country, and I just can't stand that sort of grandstanding on such an issue which deserves bipartisanship.

This legislation amends the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 to prohibit the use of credit cards and credit related products and digital currency as payment methods for interactive gambling services and creates a new criminal offence and civil penalty provision relating to the ban. It also provides the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, with enhanced powers to enforce the ban and other existing offences.

Almost half of Australian adults who gamble are classified as at risk of gambling harm or are already experiencing it. A greater proportion of men who gamble are classified at risk of harm—53 per cent of male gamblers compared with 37 per cent of female gamblers. At-risk gambling is highest amongst young people as well—18- to 34-year-olds. People who gamble at least weekly are significantly more likely to be classified as at risk of harm. Gambling related problems range from general harms such as relationship conflicts—and I can testify to this having seen it in my own family's life; the breakdown of my parents' marriage was clearly affected by alcohol, drug and gambling abuse—impacts on health and wellbeing and erosion of savings to crisis harms, where immediate support is required. Harms to relationship health and emotional and psychological issues abound with gambling related harm.

Six per cent or more than one million Australian adults report being harmed by someone else's gambling. Gambling doesn't just affect the gambler; it affects their family and friends. Those most commonly affected are work colleagues, families and friends. The most common harms experienced due to another person's gambling are anger, distress, hopelessness about their gambling, tension and relationship problems.

In September this year the Australian Gambling Research Centre noted that gambling is a major public policy issue in Australia and affects the wellbeing and health of Australian. It's not just about personal responsibility; it's about health and wellbeing. The social costs of gambling include adverse financial impacts, productivity loss and work impacts as well.

One in six Australian children aged 16 to 17 have participated in underage gambling in the past year. Almost half of all young people aged 18 to 19 report spending money gambling. The normalisation and widespread promotion of gambling and the increased level of access to it has led to substantial increases. We see this when we watch the football on a Friday night or sport on the weekend. You see it if you watch any free-to-air TV. Harms from online gambling have been exacerbated by sophisticated advances in technology conveying messages to consumers.

Worldwide, the use of concepts like 'responsible gambling' and 'problem gamblers' is likely to have diminished the implementation of harm minimisation measures for gambling. These measures should be developed with a public health focus, not from discredited values judgements like 'personal responsibility' and similar terminology. This is inappropriate. It has been used in the past by governments, by gambling and associated industries and even by some researchers. The results have been that revenue to gambling businesses and governments have continued but substantial levels of harm have been levelled upon the community. Industry-developed concepts such as 'responsible gambling' and 'problem gamblers' should be avoided.

Online gambling is associated with so many problems. Recently, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, of which I'm a member, completed an inquiry into online gambling and its impact on those experiencing gambling harm. I want to thank and commend the wonderful efforts of the member for Dunkley for the great work she did, ably supported by the co-chair, the member for Cowper. The committee released a bipartisan report which I think is groundbreaking and of the best reports I have ever seen in my years in parliament. You win some, you lose more is the name of the report. The committee examined the harms to individuals, families and communities caused by online gambling. Professor Sally Gainsbury, who I consider to be Australia's leading expert in this area, and her team at the University of Sydney's gambling treatment and research clinic made relevant points about this 'personal responsibility' or 'self-control' fiction in their submission to the committee's inquiry.

Most people who gamble online do not set predetermined spending limits. But Professor Gainsbury advised the committee that many people who do set online gambling spending limits later increase those limits or remove them altogether. Her findings suggest that more research is needed into this issue. She recommended that deposit limits be accompanied by more education and tools for consumers to assist them in setting affordable limits and provide resources to assist them in sticking with their intentions. Her research found that there are barriers to voluntary use of consumer protection tools, including setting deposit limits. There is a perception that these tools are something for people who have gambling problems, and most people think they can control their gambling without those tools. The inappropriate language she referred to, developed by the gambling industry, is pervasive and has been endorsed by governments at all levels and should be avoided.

Despite the high-risk status of young men, they're the most likely to have access to tools and resources and to not seek professional help for gambling or mental health problems. Young men who gamble online are more likely to gamble beyond their means, which often leads to severe mental health problems. And think about this: 18- to 34-year-old men are the most likely to do it, and that's the age when they're young fathers and are setting themselves up financially, and when young children are most exposed, most affected.

We need, as Professor Sally Gainsbury says, more targeted programs that are required to reduce gambling harms, especially towards those young men. She found that there are few appropriate treatment options for people who are experiencing online gambling problems, and we need to do so much more. She found that training is needed for health and welfare professionals to assist them to identify, screen and assist people by using individual tools and resources in treatment. Regarding advertising, she advised that broad advertising for online gambling will continue to increase public awareness and favourable attitudes towards gambling and will exacerbate gambling harms. She recommended that further actions be undertaken to reduce people's exposure to those gambling products.

The committee made many findings. There are 31 of them, and I'm not going to go through them. But they are really important, and I commend them to anyone who wants to read them. We need a comprehensive national strategy for online gambling harm reduction, informed by a public health focus and principles. Reliance on individual responsibility needs to completely go. We need early intervention and prevention measures. We need rapid take-up of these sorts of treatments, because we've had rapid take-up of online gambling, and we have the world's worst online gambling losses. This is having a devastating impact on our communities. And in communities like mine, in Ipswich, amongst working-class people, and in Logan and the Moreton Bay region that you represent, Deputy Speaker Young, this is a major problem.

Gambling disorder is a mental illness that requires more targeted care. Where services exist, shame, stigma and disjointed services are driving people away. There should be no wrong doors through which people who are experiencing gambling problems can seek help. This requires raising awareness in the general community and among frontline services. The frontline services I experienced when I was a child, a teenager and a young man were just not capable of understanding the impacts of addiction on those people suffering from that harm. They were incapable of providing familial support for family members with a parent, grandparent or loved one who was going through that problem.

We have the highest per capita online gambling losses in the world because of regulatory failure. We are told we are a culture of gamblers by the advertising budgets of multinational gambling firms that are competing for a market share of Australian losses. The truth is that we lose so much because of weak regulation of gambling. We must do more, and we must do better. The committee found that Australians demand an end to the saturation advertising of gambling products. The committee recommended a comprehensive ban on advertising for online gambling, including prohibiting all online gambling inducements and all online gambling advertising on social media and online platforms. And we'd hear the industry get back to us. There wouldn't be a member of the committee who hasn't had industry after industry contacting them saying, 'We can't do it; we'll go broke'—the same arguments the tobacco companies used again and again when tobacco advertising was banned.

The committee also recommended prohibition on all online gambling advertising and commentary on either side of sports broadcasting and during it and prohibition on all in-stadium advertising, including on uniforms. Why should little kids, running around on a rugby league ground, have gambling advertising on the back of their jerseys, or the front of their jerseys? It's simply not good enough. Prohibition should be applied to all broadcasting online gambling advertising between 6 am and 10 pm, leading to prohibition of all online gambling advertising.

We need to do better; we need to do much better. The online gambling problem is growing in this country due to the ease of fast access through mobile devices, increased proliferation of online gambling applications and changes in consumer behaviour. As the member for Moreton outlined, research has been done by Gambling Research Australia which shows that gambling harm is estimated to double in coming years. This government is committed to introducing legislation—we did this in April this year—to ban the use of credit cards for online gambling, and this bill delivers on that promise.

The bill implements recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services inquiry report from 2021. I hope the recommendations of the report I referred to, by the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee, are taken up in full by the government. That will make a big difference. That's the next stage and the next step of regulatory reform and reform in this country.

At the PJC inquiry, some gambling stakeholders stated that 15 to 20 per cent of customers use credit cards for online gambling. While this is a relatively small number, those who gamble with credit cards are at much greater risk, because it is so easy to do. Credit card transactions attract higher rates of interest and fees. We know this. Therefore the impact on them and their families is greater.

The bill before the chamber will bring online gambling law into line with land-based gambling laws, where credit cards have been banned from TAB outlets, casinos and poker machine venues since the early 2000s. I support leagues clubs in my community. I know how important they are. I know how important the turf club at Bundamba is. But we've just got to get a degree of regulation in this area.

This bill prohibits digital currencies for gambling use, including cryptocurrency. It prevents people buying cryptocurrency with a credit card and then using cryptocurrency to gamble. The bill provides responsible ministers with a power to proscribe other credit-related payments that come onto the market as a way of really future-proofing the legislation. People should not be gambling with money they don't have because of the impact on them and their financial security, and the impact on their family, their friends and their community. This bill aligns with the government's broader commitment to minimising harm.

The bill will prohibit an operator of a regulated wagering service from accepting payments from a customer of the service who is physically present in Australia using credit card, digital wallets, digital currency or any other method determined by the minister. I think that's a very good reform by the government, because this will prevent creative use of the online gaming industry to entice you to use whatever form of credit you can avail yourself of, and who knows what the future may hold in terms of digital capacity to gamble.

The bill creates a new criminal offence of 500 penalty units and new civil penalty provisions of 750 penalty units. It expands ACMA's compliance and enforcement powers. I commend the bill to the House, and I think it is just the first stage in more work to be done.

Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023. This bill seeks to ban the use of cards and cryptocurrency for online gambling and I acknowledge that it is long overdue. I would like to acknowledge and thank the member for Mayo, on the crossbench, who introduced a very similar private member's bill to this, and it was good to see the government act in a similar fashion. This bill delivers on the government's April commitment and implements recommendation 2 of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.

Gambling is such a scourge; 80 per cent of Australians believe that gambling with credit cards should be restricted and banned. This is research from the Australian Banking Association. So it should be clear to all sides of the political divide that this must occur. I do hope this will be passed through the House with multipartisan support. It is quite nonsensical to think that we are allowing people to use credit cards, which use money people do not have and which they will pay a high interest rate on, to gamble.

Warringah constituents want to see action taken by all levels of government to reduce gambling harm. We know that, at the recent state election, gambling was very much on the agenda as a policy issue. I should say it's been disappointing to see what the Minns government has in fact put in place. It really has failed to take leadership and a strong position in relation to reducing gambling and its incredibly harmful impacts. The Northern Beaches Council is currently seeking community consultation on the review of its gambling and poker machine harm minimisation policy, which was a leading local government policy when it was first introduced in 2018. It aims to educate the community about the services available to help reduce harm.

Too often we hear of tragic cases in our community where gambling has taken over the lives of people who are addicted to it. It's an issue that impacted our local community. A local man, a father of the Northern Beaches in his mid-40s—I won't name him, out of respect for his family—went on a 13-hour gambling spree. He was well known to local facilities and, incredibly tragically, he ultimately committed suicide due to his gambling. The impacts of his gambling addiction are just so incredibly tragic. No person or family should be experiencing this.

I've stood before this House and expressed my support for the government to do more to address gambling—in particular, online gambling, which is a huge issue in Australia. There is no doubt that the growth in online platforms has meant it is so much more readily available. It is immediate. It is instant. It is there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has changed the addictive nature of gambling by having it so readily accessible to people.

I am concerned, though, at the slow implementation of the recommendations that were included in the recent report in June 2023, named You win some, you lose more. The report provided a significant list of changes to how we consider gambling and restrict gambling advertising. The government has indicated that it accepts the recommendations, but it has a very slow time line for implementation—over several years. I'm really horrified when I think of how many more families are going to be impacted by gambling while the government decides to implement and gradually get there on those recommendations, especially when the evidence of the impacts happening now is already so stark.

Compounding on all of this is that we need a national strategy, and we need states and territories to come to the table. But we also know that the COVID restrictions over the last few years have had a massive impact on gambling in communities. We saw a huge increase in online gambling. The government, I would say, is just catching up. It's such an issue that, in fact, during COVID I held an online forum for constituents to engage and so I could hear from my community about the impacts of increasing gambling during the pandemic. I gave them access to experts to really raise the alarm in relation to those concerns. Research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that the proportion who gambled four or more times a week increased from 23 per cent to 32 per cent during the COVID pandemic, and one in three people who were surveyed signed up for a new online gambling account during COVID. Those statistics are incredibly stark.

Whilst this bill is welcome in seeking to prevent people from gambling money on credit—money they do not have—it fails to close all loopholes, thus undermining its efficacy. We need to keep in mind that young men are the population group that is most at risk of this. With access to online gambling so readily available, we need to make sure all loopholes are closed so that we really don't let this get a hold on people.

Professor Sally Gainsbury from the Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic at the Sydney university highlights the need to prevent loopholes, acknowledging that those suffering from gambling addiction seek to circumvent laws and management tools, and they are failing to address this, engaging with unsecured and small creditors, including payday lenders, pawnbrokers and family members, and using illegal offshore wagering websites and third-party mechanisms, such as e-wallets. I'm therefore calling for reviews of this legislation to take into account the extent to which this occurs. We must make sure loopholes are closed.

Alliance for Gambling Reform's Tim Costello opposed the carve-out for online lotteries and said that the harm from online lottery and Keno products is being understated. As outlined in their submission to the Senate committee, with the Lotto app you can easily spend $10,000 on tickets immediately. That's $10,000 going on credit from people who do not have that money. With Keno there is a maximum of $1,000 every three minutes. There is a carve-out in this legislation such that this can continue with credit cards. That is concerning, because that is still a loophole that will be used. Online lotteries absolutely need to be included in this bill, and I'm moving amendments to include those during consideration in detail. I urge the government to support those amendments, to really make this legislation as good as it can be and close those loopholes.

Finally, I'd like to acknowledge the incredible toll on families where there are family members with gambling addictions, and I urge them to seek help from services in our community, whether they be the one suffering or whether it is their families who are suffering. And I'd like to thank those people who do that work on the front line. It's incredibly distressing. This problem leads to the destruction of family units and, in tragic cases, to people taking their life. It's incredibly important that we close the loopholes and deal with gambling.

Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023. This bill implements recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services from November 2021 on the regulation of the use of financial services such as credit cards and digital wallets for online gambling in Australia. The minister, in her second reading speech, advised that, consistent with the inquiry's recommendations, lotteries present a lower risk of gambling harm. This bill does not apply to lotteries, including activities of not-for-profit charities and newsagents.

As stated, the bill will amend the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 to ban the use of credit cards and credit related products for online wagering to create a safer environment for Australians who are at risk of gambling harm. In addressing this bill, I thought it would be worth revisiting some of the points raised in the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs—titled, quite aptly, You win some, you lose more: online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm, dated June 2023. The evidence given during this inquiry is compelling, and it is staggering to learn that Australia has the highest gambling losses per adult, with a total of $25 billion in losses per annum. We advised that Australians outspend the citizens of every other country in online gambling, which is staggering, especially when you consider the harm it is creating in our communities. In the foreword of the report, the committee Chair wrote:

If the status quo of online gambling regulation, including but not limited to advertising, was to continue Australians would continue to lose more—more money, more relationships, more love of sport for the game rather than the odds.

That said, most Australians and indeed my own community believe that gambling is harmful to society and that it is way too easy to gamble in Australia. They worry about the effect it is having on our children and young people.

The standing committee report also stated that: online gambling companies advertise so much in Australia because it works; gambling advertising is grooming children and young people to gamble and encourages riskier behaviour; and the torrent of advertising is inescapable and is manipulating an impressionable and vulnerable audience to gamble online. Given the evidence provided, I agree that online gambling has the potential to cause psychological, health, relationship, legal and financial harm to individuals and their families. Sadly, it has been shown that gambling is a key risk factor for suicide.

In April of this year, the government promised to introduce legislation to ban the use of credit cards for online wagering by the end of the year, and we are delivering on that promise. Australians should not be gambling with money they do not have, nor should children and young people be exposed to gambling through relentless advertising and interactive games that simulate real gambling or include gambling-like features such as 'loot boxes'. Loot boxes are typically an in-game container that masks the contents, which are random. Players spend real currency or in-game currency to receive one of these random items, which can make the player more powerful, more competitive or more appealing. The report by the committee advised:

Loot boxes were found in 58 per cent of the top games in the Google Play Store, in 59 per cent of the top games on the Apple Store and in 36 per cent of the top games on the Steam store.

Games these days act more like a service, with the companies often providing them for free and relying on the loot boxes to create an income stream. What is concerning is that they are encouraging gambling-like behaviour.

A constituent of mine in Pearce advised she had succumbed to this activity when recovering from surgery and subsequent depression, saying games provided an outlet, but soon realised, once the dollars spent started to mount up from this activity, that it was a form of gambling and she had to stop. Her action was to uninstall any game from her devices that included the loot box connection. There would probably not be one smartphone in this building that does not contain apps for games, many of which allow you to purchase additional tokens, extra games and the like. Not everyone will succumb to this temptation to spend up big, but, given the link to gambling, it is of concern.

As we now know, some interactive games share striking similarities with monetised forms of gambling and that the simulation of gambling activities and, in particular, winning can provide the same feelings as activities that are regulated as gambling and carry similar risks of addiction and other negative social, economic and health consequences. So it is absolutely imperative that we act. I am pleased that the government is working with state and territory governments to update the classification rules for online video games to protect children and other vulnerable people in our community from exposure to simulated gambling. It is important to take on board the advice of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, who stated that the categorisation of gambling disorder reflects research suggesting that 'gambling disorder is similar to substance related disorders in clinical expression, brain origin, comorbidity, physiology and treatment. I am also drawn to the comment made by Professor Dan Lubman:

Addiction is not a choice. People experiencing gambling harm want nothing more than to stop. Many do, but only with the right treatment, care and support. We show incredible compassion to those struggling with cancer, heart disease and mental health, yet we typically blame people living with addiction.

We need to remove the stigma attached to gambling addiction and barriers to seeking help.

I note that the government is currently considering the comprehensive recommendations handed down by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs in its inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm. The purpose of the bill is to reduce gambling harm experienced by Australians by prohibiting the use of credit cards, credit related products and digital currency as payment methods for interactive wagering services. The bill is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.

It is disturbing to know that the Alliance for Gambling Reform stated to the standing committee that Australians lose the most money to online gambling per capita in the world. This is totally and absolutely unacceptable. Given the havoc that online gambling is creating in our community, I fully support the bill and look forward to further deliberations by the government on other recommendations handed down by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs in its inquiry into online gambling and its impact on those experiencing gambling harm. We have to act in this way. I commend the bill to the House.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023. It's an easy decision. It pretty much mirrors a bill I introduced in March this year. It's just a great shame that we've wasted seven months—we've seen harm over the last seven months—because of the lack of action on this very issue. It's a very simple bill in the sense that it recognises credit is really bad when it comes to gambling, and that preventing the use of credit reduces gambling harm because people have to use their savings; they're not using money that's not yet theirs. As well as banning the use of credit cards for interactive gambling services, my private member's bill required gambling companies to ensure people expressly acknowledged their losses, and that is something I would really like to see the government do.

We are the biggest losers in the world. We lose $25 billion a year. Those figures are from 2018-19. We know that they're worse now. We know that those figures will pale in comparison with what's lost in 2023-24. That's why I'm taking this opportunity to ask the government to enact all of the recommendations from the You win some, you lose more committee report, and let's do this now. It has taken months to get to this point. As my mum says, it's as slow as molasses in winter. Enough is enough—that was what the report said, the unanimous report with 31 strong recommendations. We can't keep waiting. We can't push this out to next year and then the year after and then there will be an election. We need to act now.

I also want to recognise that ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, showed that one million gambling advertisements aired on free-to-air metropolitan and regional TV and metropolitan radio between May 2022 and April 2023. That is obscene. One million advertisements. It's no wonder our young people are getting caught up in this because it's at saturation level. It doesn't end for them. We need to do better in this country. We can't have the title of being the world's biggest loser. We need to do better. This bill is a very good start, but my goodness it's a very, very small step.

I strongly urge the government: you've got an inquiry report; it has some very sensible recommendations. Let's get to it, and let's get to it now. This is harming our kids. Our kids know what the odds are for games on television. Our kids know about all the sporting apps because they see the advertisements. We reacted to smoking differently in the nineties. We said: 'Enough is enough. This is a public health issue. We must do better.' And then we banned advertising for cigarettes. We must do the same now with respect to gambling advertising.

The work that we do in this place is so critical, but we are letting down the 1.3 million people who already have a problematic gambling addiction or who are at risk of that. We wouldn't do that if we had a million people with drug issues. We would say, 'We need to make sure that we have supports available to you.' We're not doing that with this. Let's do better. Let's look at those recommendations. Let's use the rest of this parliamentary year to make sure those recommendations are implemented into law. I commend this bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:29