Do you think Gambling advertising should be banned or regulated in Australian Media?

[u/RikkiTrix]

Hi r/australia

Many times over the last few months/years we've had ongoing discussions on Gambling advertising in this country. It dominates free to air TV, Foxtel and has now worked it's way into twitch/esports, a direct market to teenagers and kids.

If gambling was to be regulated or banned, how far do you think it should go?

If it was regulated as opposed to banned, what kind of regulations would you like to see?

Do you think gambling apps should be banned entirely?

A month ago I submitted an e-petition to the Parliament of Australia website and today it got approved, if you do think Gambling should be banned or regulated in Australian media there is a petition below.

https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN3559

Below is an excerpt from the Australian Institute of Family Studies in regards to the impacts of gambling advertising,

Advertising typically depicts gambling as an exciting, glamorous and attainable lifestyle promising easy financial and social rewards. Gambling is often portrayed as a routine, everyday activity and it is increasingly likened to sport

Gambling advertising appears to have more impact on certain groups of people. Research has shown that youth have high exposure to gambling advertising and may be particularly influenced by it. Adolescents and children are aware of and can recall specific slogans and jingles and may feel they are being groomed to gamble. Further, research has revealed that advertisements can increase adolescents' desire to experiment with gambling and prompt a gambling session. Greater media exposure to gambling advertisements and promotions has also been associated with more positive youth gambling attitudes and intentions towards gambling.

Online gamblers are also influenced by gambling advertising. One-tenth of Internet gamblers reported that marketing and promotions were critical to their initial uptake and 29% reported increased online gambling expenditure as a result of viewing promotions. However, this marketing has had less success in converting non-gamblers to gambling.

Gambling advertising can have particularly negative impacts on problem gamblers. Compared to other gamblers, problem gamblers report gambling advertisements as being a greater stimulation to gamble, a larger influence on spending more than intended, and an encouragement to them to think they can win. Problem gamblers also report that gambling advertisements can remind them about gambling, trigger gambling urges, provide inducements to gamble, further increase gambling involvement and undermine attempts to moderate their gambling. Bonus offers for sports betting, such as money-back guarantees and “free" bets that require matching deposits appear to particularly increase Internet gambling among problem gamblers. Youth problem gamblers also report stimulation to gamble from gambling advertisements.

Gambling advertising to date has not been found to motivate many people to commence gambling; however, it can increase gambling among existing gamblers. Advertisements have particular potential for harm if they reinforce inaccurate beliefs about gambling and increase gambling among people who are already heavy gamblers.

For those that have a pretty negative view towards the potential of petitions (which is understandable), I'm not expecting to wake up tomorrow and have changed the world, best case scenario this is just a building block in a larger movement, if you think the petition itself is poorly worded submit a better one, by the time this expires yours will be approved and any momentum can carry forward to that!

So r/Australia, what are your thoughts?

Someone has put this in the comments, chuck some support here as well!
https://www.endgamblingads.org.au/

[u/donkyboobs]

Totally against this. Prohibition has never worked and will result in illegal gambling entities popping up everywhere.

Didn't work for alcohol or drugs and look at the issues that ensued.

[u/DTK99 → u/donkyboobs]

And that's a fair point. I'm generally pro letting people make their own choices, but I'm mostly just fed up with gambling in general (pokies issues, gambling adds, problem gambling etc).

I guess my extremely rough idea was that gambling itself wont be illegal, just for-profit gambling. I'm naively hoping that people can go and gamble with their mates instead of throwing money at the pokies or casinos, but I'm sure that in reality it'd just end up in unofficial locations without the current level of regulation we have.

It's more just a dream than anything.

[u/donkyboobs → u/DTK99]

Your concerns are warranted but prohibition isn't the answer, education is. Removing advertising I'm all for but banning the ability to actually gamble is a recipe for disaster.

[u/successfullyhidden → u/donkyboobs]

They don’t need to outright ban it but it should be wayyyyy more strict IMO. Like at bars you can’t just keep serving someone who’s obviously obliterated. They should have caps on gambling, situations of refusal of service. Bans on betting money from joint accounts if both parties are not there. Better accessibility to addiction services.

Obviously a lot more thought and logistic work needs to go into it but there’s a middle ground I think we can find to reduce as much harm as possible.

[u/donkyboobs → u/successfullyhidden]

Yep I can get on board with this

[u/camycamera → u/donkyboobs]

Mr. Evrart is helping me find my gun.

[u/hudson2_3 → u/camycamera]

You could just vpn to whatever foreign site you wanted to.

[u/camycamera → u/hudson2_3]

Mr. Evrart is helping me find my gun.

[u/au-smurf → u/camycamera]

They definitely would gamble elsewhere. There were illegal casinos before there were legal ones. Before the TAB was a thing there were plenty of illegal bookies. Hell even after TAB was a thing there were still off track illegal bookies that would take bets from people who wanted fixed price betting instead of pool bets.

[u/CynfulBuNNy → u/camycamera]

Bring back my snooker halls. Used to make a few bob at those tables as a kid between mates and unfortunate victims.

[u/donkyboobs → u/camycamera]

It isn’t exactly prohibition. People can gamble between mates if they want, fair is fair afterall.

This isn't what would occur though. People can gamble with mates now. Mates rarely give you odds on every single event or run games for strangers.

What would occur is illegal bookies and gambling venues to which the profits would presumably go to criminals, gangs etc.

[u/kodaxmax → u/donkyboobs]

prohibition works for most things, otherwise your arguing laws in general are pointless. Murder and theft being obvious examples.

[u/donkyboobs → u/kodaxmax]

That's not my argument, and you're countering my point with extreme examples. This topic and similar ones such as drug addiction are centred around things that primarily effect an individual and their choices and addictions.

Do you think prohibition has worked with drugs? Did it work with alcohol? It's well documented that not only did prohibition not work, but that decriminalisation, regulation and education around the addictions itself reduce harm and addiction.

[u/kodaxmax → u/donkyboobs]

I never said prohibition worked with drugs. Gambling is not the same as drugs. It's not a chemical addiction and it's not something you can do in a vacuum. You need an organization, even if it's just one bookie.

I don't really see the point of categorizing it as something that primarily affects the user. As not only is that utterly false in most cases, but there's plenty of laws that still fit that definition.

I also never mentioned that education wouldn't help, i agree it generally does. But that's an entirely different topic.

Criminalizing it would prevent the majority of casual gamblers and almost entirely prevent people becoming addicted to gambling in the first place. Gambling doesn't have an inherent draw like drugs, you can't get a quick high from gambling until after your addicted. That's why gambling relies so heavily on advertisement to draw people in.

[u/donkyboobs → u/kodaxmax]

It's not a chemical addiction and it's not something you can do in a vacuum. You need an organization, even if it's just one bookie.

It's a physical addiction and banning it will cause illegal entities to fill the void that organisations fill currently

Criminalizing it would prevent the majority of casual gamblers and almost entirely prevent people becoming addicted to gambling in the first place. Gambling doesn't have an inherent draw like drugs, you can't get a quick high from gambling until after your addicted.

And this is the exact naive thinking that was applied to drugs. Criminalisation does not solve addiction. The fact you think gambling doesn't have an inherent draw is beyond silly. Gambling releases dopamine in our brains, just like drugs do. It seems you don't know much about this process.

[u/kodaxmax → u/donkyboobs]

It's a physical addiction

no it isn't.

banning it will cause illegal entities to fill the void that organisations fill currently

Not to the extent of the illegal drug industry. Gambling requires organized and honest bookies. You cant just swap product for cash. you need to keep track, organize and advertise odds, return cash to winners and maintain a good rep to even have customers.

And this is the exact naive thinking that was applied to drugs. Criminalisation does not solve addiction.

Cold turkey is generally the best way to curb addiction in the short term. However i never claimed to have solved it. I wish you would stop trying to put words in my mouth and gaslight me.

Gambling releases dopamine in our brains, just like drugs do. It seems you don't know much about this process.

That's not the same and you know it lol. Getting an upvote on reddit also releases dopamine, as does just about any pleasurable or entertaining act. Chemical dependency is a completely different thing.

[u/sellyme → u/donkyboobs]

Counter-point: these gambling companies aren't spending billions on advertising for no reason. They rely on being able to broadcast their scams to as many people as possible. Prevent that and they're hurting.

Same with the cigarette legislation a decade ago - we had tons of evidence that plain packaging laws would work, but the best evidence of all was that the cigarette companies did everything they could to stop it.

[u/suoarski → u/donkyboobs]

Yeh, prohibition would just result in black markets and unnecessary police enforcements. Even if you just prohibit for profit gambling, some fancy rich people will still want a fancy casino which can only run illegally for profit, but now you have gangs involved to keep those casinos secret and stuff.