June 29, 2023 • 11 mins
A parliamentary committee wants to ban all online gambling ads, which are common in the sports world.
Two-thirds of those who gamble on sports are at risk of gambling-related harm, including addiction, relationship breakdown and financial hardship.
In today’s deep dive we’ll look at how likely these reforms are to go ahead, and what impact they would have on the sports bodies with a lot to lose.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Bunjelung calcotton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Just a heads up before we start this episode, we're
going to discuss gambling and mental health. If you need support,
you can call Gambling Help on one eight hundred eight
five eight eight five eight, or you can call Lifeline
on thirteen eleven fourteen.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. Happy Friday.
It's the thirtieth of June. I'm Sam, I'm Nina. Advertisements
for online gambling are everywhere, especially in the world of sports.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Bet three six five, the world's favorite online sports paying company.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It couldn't be easier. Sports BET's bat was Mike's you
just gotch your eye money and run.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
But now a parliamentary committee wants to ban all ads
for online gambling. It says these ads are damaging to
the community, but the gambling industry and even sports bodies
have a lot to lose. We'll tell you what you
need to know in today's Deep Dive, But first, Nina,
what's making headlines this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
The new South Wales corruption watchdog has found that former
Premier Gladysbury Jicklian committed serious corrupt conduct and breached public trust.
AIKEAK didn't identify any conduct by Barry Jicklian which warranted
criminal prosecution. It did, however, recommend prosecution be considered against
former MP Daryl Maguire. And if you're confused about all
(01:43):
of this, go back and listen to yesterday's episode where
we explained it all in the Deep Dive.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Ben Robert Smith has agreed to pay the legal costs
of the three Australian newspapers he brought defamation proceedings against.
The prominent former Australian soldier was un successful in an
attempt to sue The Cydney Morning Herald, The Age and
The Canberra Times. The newspaper's legal fees could be in
the tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
At least seventy seven people have been arrested in France
amidst days of unrest and protests against local law enforcement.
It comes after police shot dead a seventeen year old boy.
French President Emmanuel mccron described the shooting as unforgivable.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And some Friday good news for you. Four time Olympic
gold medalist Simone Biles will return to gymnastics later this year.
The American last competed at the Tokyo Olympics back in
twenty twenty one and stepped away to focus on her
mental health. Her return will be at the start of August.
(02:48):
A parliamentary committee has recommended a total ban on all
advertising for online gambling. This committee had a close look
at the harm online gambling was causing and found it
was in their works wreaking havoc in Australian communities.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Particular concern was this link between gambling and psychological harm
and even suicide.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
How big exactly is the world of online gambling?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, we're the world's biggest gamblers. We lose twenty five
billion dollars a year and online gambling accounts for a
growing share of these losses. Have a think about this.
Almost half of Australian's surveyed in twenty twenty two placed
a bet on sports or racing, and three times as
many of us gamble online today compared to a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
What I think I struggle with as a non sports
fan is actually what this looks like at events in
the world. Can you paint a picture of how integrated
these betting sites and this betting promotion actually is.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Wherever you're watching sport, there is a presence, an omnipresent
presence of sports gambling ads around you. You know, if
you go into a live sports game, when you walk
into the stadium, there's often carts there where you can
place a bet, and then those screens that kind of
win around the stadium, they'll often have sports advertising on them.
You've got announcements of the odds on the screens. It's huge. Then,
(04:08):
if you're watching on the couch at home, you're constantly
updated by even commentators. Sometimes on the odds of the game.
They'll say things like, you know, we're bringing you this
halftime update courtesy of betting agency X, And they'll say, well,
this team's in front and they're paying a dollar ninety
right now, so it might be worth placing a bet.
And then they always say, you know, their disclosures. Gamble
(04:28):
responsibly make sure you consider the impacts of this bet
before you place it. But there's absolutely no doubting that
sports betting is intertwined with Australian sport.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And so when the Parliamentary Committee started looking at this
world of sports betting and that advertising that promotes it,
what's really driving that investigation? What do they say the
risks are of this kind of prolific messaging.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well, they seem to be anchoring their findings on this
idea that two thirds of those who gamble on sports
are at risk of gambling related harm and that includes
things like addiction, relationship breakdown and financial hardship. And it's
particularly young men who are at risk. Those who gamble
have a suicide risk four times greater than those who don't.
(05:12):
So when this Gambling Inquiry asked for submissions, there were
people with first hand experience of the impacts of gambling
who are writing in. There was one submission from a
man called Jeremy Ryan from Perth who wrote, not long
after my sixteenth birthday, gambling took an unrelenting hold on
me and has continued to ruin and rule my life
for the past eleven years. He said, I can't watch television.
(05:36):
I can't watch sport, I can't go on social media,
I can't listen to the radio. It is truly, truly
astounding the stranglehold these evil and avaricious companies have on
everyday Australians like myself.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's crazy to think of someone getting started in all
of this at sixteen and then being inundated with messages
for the rest of your life. What rules currently exist
around this online gambling space and the way that they're promoted.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Well, according to the Committee, while there is regulation around
the advertising of online sports gambling, it's inconsistent. So for example,
rules are set out by a combination of federal and
state and territory governments and self imposed gambling industry codes
of conduct. Now, in general, there are a few limitations
on what gambling platforms can offer. So there's one key regulation,
(06:25):
which is no in game betting and on when they
can advertise. So there's a ban on sports betting advertisings
during life play, but you're allowed before, after the game
and during breaks so in halftime.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
So those are the rules that are currently in place.
What reform did the committee call for in their recommendations.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Well, amongst the several recommendations made by the committee. There
was a call for a total ban on all forms
of online gambling advertising and inducements.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And what is an inducement? I get an ad, but
what's the inducement.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Well, inducements are those special offers that are designed to
encourage betting. So think of things like a bonus or
an early payout offer, or multis which is several bets
grouped together with a higher potential winning, and even something
like a loyalty program. And these are things you hear
being promoted a lot. And the committee recommends phasing these
out over the next three years, but suggested an exemption
(07:17):
for dedicated racing channels and a temporary exemption for small
community radio broadcasters.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I think it's fair to assume the gambling industry is
not going to be stoked about these proposed reforms. What
have we heard so far?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
No, of course they're not stoked. This impacts their bottom lines.
So the betting Industry Lobby group opposed the ban, and
they asked for caps on how many gambling ads can
be shown instead of this blanket ban, and in response
to that, the committee argued that partial bands could then
be easily avoided for example, when in sport gambling was
banned in twenty seventeen, and to give you a sense
(07:50):
of what that looked like, if you're watching live sport
during the game, there'd be those tickers at the bottom
of the screen that would tell you exactly what the
payouts could be or what the odds are in live time.
So those were banned in twenty seventeen, but we actually
saw an increase in sports betting after that because what
sports betting companies would do is they would buy up
more spots outside of the in play times, particularly halftime.
(08:11):
We've seen a big change to what halftime looks like
since that band was introduced.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
In order for these reforms to come into effect, they
need to be introduced in past in parliament. Do they
have political support?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The minister responsible here is Michelle Rowland. She's responsible for
gambling regulation and she wouldn't give an indication whether she
supported the ban, but she did say the government would
consider the report and its recommendations in full.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
What about sports bodies, because you've painted this picture of
how it integrated this advertising of gambling is in the
sports world. How sports bodies themselves likely to be impacted
by potential reforms.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Well, they have a lot to lose, and we know
a lot more of than we did a couple of
weeks ago because of an investigation by four Corners which
revealed some really deep ties between the sporting bodies and
gambling organizations. And what this investigation found was that agreements
between sporting bodies, so we're talking here about like the
NRL or the AFL Cricket Australia, they can earn a
(09:10):
commission of up to seventeen point five percent of profits
from Australians gambling on their events.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, So there's a bit of a kickpack there and
almost competing interests in sporting bodies getting large amounts of
money for allowing online gambling to exist within their sport.
So to give you an example of how this actually
could work, according to the ABC's report, Football Australia gets
either one percent of every bet placed in Australia on
(09:38):
the soccer game or fifteen percent of the bookmakers profit.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So they're making money off that gambling, even if the
gambling companies aren't necessarily profiting exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And that kind of gives you an understanding of how
these sporting bodies might be incentivized to push back on
banning ads for online gambling.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
SAM as society moves to trying to separate gamblings from
sport and the experience of sport. Do you think that
it'll impact the way you and people in Australia consume
sport and enjoy sport.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I think about this a lot. What I've noticed with
sports gambling in the last couple of years is it
is slowly moving from dominantly public spaces like actual events
and television broadcasts, the gambling itself, the ads for the
gambling services into more private spaces, and the ways that
some of the gambling companies are doing that is by
offering it to be a group activity. So the idea
(10:29):
that you can place bets with your mates and talk
about it and actually ride that win or loss together,
I think is really trying to socialize gambling. And so
I think what we can learn from that is that
even if this regulation does come through, we're still going
to see it exist on that kind of matship level.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So you're talking about this sense of community that exists
when everyone's supporting your team and they've got stakes in
the game because their money is now on whoever wins
or loses. Is there a way or can that exist
if people aren't gambling with money.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I think it can and I've been involved in a
tipping competition with a big group of friends for many
many years now and no money changes hands, and it
still allows us to engage in that who's going to win,
who's going to lose, how's your team going, who's winning
in the table without there being money on the line.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
If this episode brought up anything for you, you can call
Gambling Help on one eight hundred eighty five eight eight
five eight, or you can call Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Thanks for joining us on the Daily OS today. Have
a great weekend, and if you enjoy this podcast, it
would really help us if you left a review on Apple,
Spotify or wherever you're listening, and we'll speak to you
on Monday.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Bunjelung calcotton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Just a heads up before we start this episode, we're
going to discuss gambling and mental health. If you need support,
you can call Gambling Help on one eight hundred eight
five eight eight five eight, or you can call Lifeline
on thirteen eleven fourteen.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. Happy Friday.
It's the thirtieth of June. I'm Sam, I'm Nina. Advertisements
for online gambling are everywhere, especially in the world of sports.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Bet three six five, the world's favorite online sports paying company.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It couldn't be easier. Sports BET's bat was Mike's you
just gotch your eye money and run.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
But now a parliamentary committee wants to ban all ads
for online gambling. It says these ads are damaging to
the community, but the gambling industry and even sports bodies
have a lot to lose. We'll tell you what you
need to know in today's Deep Dive, But first, Nina,
what's making headlines this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
The new South Wales corruption watchdog has found that former
Premier Gladysbury Jicklian committed serious corrupt conduct and breached public trust.
AIKEAK didn't identify any conduct by Barry Jicklian which warranted
criminal prosecution. It did, however, recommend prosecution be considered against
former MP Daryl Maguire. And if you're confused about all
(01:43):
of this, go back and listen to yesterday's episode where
we explained it all in the Deep Dive.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Ben Robert Smith has agreed to pay the legal costs
of the three Australian newspapers he brought defamation proceedings against.
The prominent former Australian soldier was un successful in an
attempt to sue The Cydney Morning Herald, The Age and
The Canberra Times. The newspaper's legal fees could be in
the tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
At least seventy seven people have been arrested in France
amidst days of unrest and protests against local law enforcement.
It comes after police shot dead a seventeen year old boy.
French President Emmanuel mccron described the shooting as unforgivable.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And some Friday good news for you. Four time Olympic
gold medalist Simone Biles will return to gymnastics later this year.
The American last competed at the Tokyo Olympics back in
twenty twenty one and stepped away to focus on her
mental health. Her return will be at the start of August.
(02:48):
A parliamentary committee has recommended a total ban on all
advertising for online gambling. This committee had a close look
at the harm online gambling was causing and found it
was in their works wreaking havoc in Australian communities.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Particular concern was this link between gambling and psychological harm
and even suicide.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
How big exactly is the world of online gambling?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, we're the world's biggest gamblers. We lose twenty five
billion dollars a year and online gambling accounts for a
growing share of these losses. Have a think about this.
Almost half of Australian's surveyed in twenty twenty two placed
a bet on sports or racing, and three times as
many of us gamble online today compared to a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
What I think I struggle with as a non sports
fan is actually what this looks like at events in
the world. Can you paint a picture of how integrated
these betting sites and this betting promotion actually is.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Wherever you're watching sport, there is a presence, an omnipresent
presence of sports gambling ads around you. You know, if
you go into a live sports game, when you walk
into the stadium, there's often carts there where you can
place a bet, and then those screens that kind of
win around the stadium, they'll often have sports advertising on them.
You've got announcements of the odds on the screens. It's huge. Then,
(04:08):
if you're watching on the couch at home, you're constantly
updated by even commentators. Sometimes on the odds of the game.
They'll say things like, you know, we're bringing you this
halftime update courtesy of betting agency X, And they'll say, well,
this team's in front and they're paying a dollar ninety
right now, so it might be worth placing a bet.
And then they always say, you know, their disclosures. Gamble
(04:28):
responsibly make sure you consider the impacts of this bet
before you place it. But there's absolutely no doubting that
sports betting is intertwined with Australian sport.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And so when the Parliamentary Committee started looking at this
world of sports betting and that advertising that promotes it,
what's really driving that investigation? What do they say the
risks are of this kind of prolific messaging.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well, they seem to be anchoring their findings on this
idea that two thirds of those who gamble on sports
are at risk of gambling related harm and that includes
things like addiction, relationship breakdown and financial hardship. And it's
particularly young men who are at risk. Those who gamble
have a suicide risk four times greater than those who don't.
(05:12):
So when this Gambling Inquiry asked for submissions, there were
people with first hand experience of the impacts of gambling
who are writing in. There was one submission from a
man called Jeremy Ryan from Perth who wrote, not long
after my sixteenth birthday, gambling took an unrelenting hold on
me and has continued to ruin and rule my life
for the past eleven years. He said, I can't watch television.
(05:36):
I can't watch sport, I can't go on social media,
I can't listen to the radio. It is truly, truly
astounding the stranglehold these evil and avaricious companies have on
everyday Australians like myself.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's crazy to think of someone getting started in all
of this at sixteen and then being inundated with messages
for the rest of your life. What rules currently exist
around this online gambling space and the way that they're promoted.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Well, according to the Committee, while there is regulation around
the advertising of online sports gambling, it's inconsistent. So for example,
rules are set out by a combination of federal and
state and territory governments and self imposed gambling industry codes
of conduct. Now, in general, there are a few limitations
on what gambling platforms can offer. So there's one key regulation,
(06:25):
which is no in game betting and on when they
can advertise. So there's a ban on sports betting advertisings
during life play, but you're allowed before, after the game
and during breaks so in halftime.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
So those are the rules that are currently in place.
What reform did the committee call for in their recommendations.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Well, amongst the several recommendations made by the committee. There
was a call for a total ban on all forms
of online gambling advertising and inducements.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And what is an inducement? I get an ad, but
what's the inducement.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Well, inducements are those special offers that are designed to
encourage betting. So think of things like a bonus or
an early payout offer, or multis which is several bets
grouped together with a higher potential winning, and even something
like a loyalty program. And these are things you hear
being promoted a lot. And the committee recommends phasing these
out over the next three years, but suggested an exemption
(07:17):
for dedicated racing channels and a temporary exemption for small
community radio broadcasters.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I think it's fair to assume the gambling industry is
not going to be stoked about these proposed reforms. What
have we heard so far?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
No, of course they're not stoked. This impacts their bottom lines.
So the betting Industry Lobby group opposed the ban, and
they asked for caps on how many gambling ads can
be shown instead of this blanket ban, and in response
to that, the committee argued that partial bands could then
be easily avoided for example, when in sport gambling was
banned in twenty seventeen, and to give you a sense
(07:50):
of what that looked like, if you're watching live sport
during the game, there'd be those tickers at the bottom
of the screen that would tell you exactly what the
payouts could be or what the odds are in live time.
So those were banned in twenty seventeen, but we actually
saw an increase in sports betting after that because what
sports betting companies would do is they would buy up
more spots outside of the in play times, particularly halftime.
(08:11):
We've seen a big change to what halftime looks like
since that band was introduced.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
In order for these reforms to come into effect, they
need to be introduced in past in parliament. Do they
have political support?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The minister responsible here is Michelle Rowland. She's responsible for
gambling regulation and she wouldn't give an indication whether she
supported the ban, but she did say the government would
consider the report and its recommendations in full.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
What about sports bodies, because you've painted this picture of
how it integrated this advertising of gambling is in the
sports world. How sports bodies themselves likely to be impacted
by potential reforms.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Well, they have a lot to lose, and we know
a lot more of than we did a couple of
weeks ago because of an investigation by four Corners which
revealed some really deep ties between the sporting bodies and
gambling organizations. And what this investigation found was that agreements
between sporting bodies, so we're talking here about like the
NRL or the AFL Cricket Australia, they can earn a
(09:10):
commission of up to seventeen point five percent of profits
from Australians gambling on their events.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, So there's a bit of a kickpack there and
almost competing interests in sporting bodies getting large amounts of
money for allowing online gambling to exist within their sport.
So to give you an example of how this actually
could work, according to the ABC's report, Football Australia gets
either one percent of every bet placed in Australia on
(09:38):
the soccer game or fifteen percent of the bookmakers profit.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So they're making money off that gambling, even if the
gambling companies aren't necessarily profiting exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And that kind of gives you an understanding of how
these sporting bodies might be incentivized to push back on
banning ads for online gambling.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
SAM as society moves to trying to separate gamblings from
sport and the experience of sport. Do you think that
it'll impact the way you and people in Australia consume
sport and enjoy sport.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I think about this a lot. What I've noticed with
sports gambling in the last couple of years is it
is slowly moving from dominantly public spaces like actual events
and television broadcasts, the gambling itself, the ads for the
gambling services into more private spaces, and the ways that
some of the gambling companies are doing that is by
offering it to be a group activity. So the idea
(10:29):
that you can place bets with your mates and talk
about it and actually ride that win or loss together,
I think is really trying to socialize gambling. And so
I think what we can learn from that is that
even if this regulation does come through, we're still going
to see it exist on that kind of matship level.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So you're talking about this sense of community that exists
when everyone's supporting your team and they've got stakes in
the game because their money is now on whoever wins
or loses. Is there a way or can that exist
if people aren't gambling with money.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I think it can and I've been involved in a
tipping competition with a big group of friends for many
many years now and no money changes hands, and it
still allows us to engage in that who's going to win,
who's going to lose, how's your team going, who's winning
in the table without there being money on the line.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
If this episode brought up anything for you, you can call
Gambling Help on one eight hundred eighty five eight eight
five eight, or you can call Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Thanks for joining us on the Daily OS today. Have
a great weekend, and if you enjoy this podcast, it
would really help us if you left a review on Apple,
Spotify or wherever you're listening, and we'll speak to you
on Monday.
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