This is the latest in a special Women’s Agenda series in which Denise Shrivell asks different experts to share facts about key issues that matter in the lead-up to the upcoming Federal election. You can see previous stories in this series, including on climate change, abortion rights, and AI, below.
Today, Denise explores gambling reform with Kate da Costa from Wesley Mission.
It has been said that the US has guns and Australia has gambling. When you dive into the issue and the real options we have for gambling reform, you may just shake your head and wonder how we go here.
It’s an issue affecting many of our fellow Australians, which is why I was so keen to hear directly from Kate da Costa from Wesley Mission, the organisation leading the gambling reform movement in NSW, and aiming to minimise harm from gambling, where they aim to minimise harm from gambling.
The gambling industry is perhaps the perfect example of politicians being incapable of putting our needs and interests ahead of their donors and party interests.
Read Kate’s responses and please take note of the actions she suggests in her final response.
Kate, can you please start by sharing an overview of the gambling industry in Australia?
Gambling means any activity where you put something of value (usually money) on the outcome of an event where chance forms at least part of the result, and if you win, you get something of value back.
The most recent national reporting on legal gambling shows that Australians lost at least $31.5 billion in 2022-2023, more than the government spends on aged care ($28.3 billion). That was spread across online sports and racing betting, poker machines, casinos, lotteries, Keno, lotto, and other forms of gambling.
There are hundreds of individual companies—hotel owners, over 90 online bookmakers, casino operators like Crown, Star, and the Iris group, private sector lottery operators like Tatts and TabCorp, and not–for–profit clubs and charities—making regulation difficult, but not impossible.
Gambling can be addictive – it’s recognised in psychiatric textbooks as a disorder and it can be extremely hard to break the habit.
Depending on the level of risk, for each person gambling, between 6 and 10 other people can be harmed – over 20% of Australians are currently experiencing some form of harm or impact from their own or another’s gambling. It’s a huge open secret – the shame around gambling problems is so acute that people would rather admit to mental health issues.
Marketing by gambling operators – ads on TV, influencers on social media, promotions at the club or pub – are increasingly targeting women, to make gambling more socially acceptable, and then to suggest it’s a harmless fun thing to do. This is to counter the limited amount of government public health measures which are aimed at convincing young men not to gambling too much.
What are the different forms of gambling?
Poker machines (land based), which are in pubs and clubs in every state and territory with the noble exception of Western Australia, are the most dangerous, most addictive form of gambling, accounting for half the harm experienced in Australia.
Online gambling – on either sport, racing, the colour of the ties worn at press conferences, under 12’s netball matches – is growing more quickly than land based forms. Many traditional face to face gambling forms like lotteries, lotto and Keno, are moving online.
Many people gamble without realising – scratchies are very common, and often given as gifts to children, but are actually gambling.
Gambling-adjacent features are often found in video games (games with lootboxes are now rated M+, although this is unlikely to stop kids being groomed for adult gambling through these kinds of products)
How is Australia unique in the world when it comes to gambling?
Australians lead the world in per capita gambling losses, with over $1500 lost per year per adult. However, in reality, since around 50 per cent of adults never gamble, those losses are much higher in households with gamblers.
We are also unique in allowing large numbers of poker machines in community spaces like pubs and clubs. Around 75 per cent of the world’s pub and club poker machines are in Australia, where they are accepted as normal – but if you look worldwide, there’s nothing normal about the extent of pokies here.
In the last weeks The Wesley Mission released a report looking at gambling losses in the cost-of-living crisis – what are the top line findings of your report?
We know a lot about gambling, but we were shocked to learn that the average household loses more to gambling than it spends on utilities.
When those figures are adjusted to account for people who don’t gamble, then there’s a massive hole in the budgets of half the households in Australia, which impacts on all the other family members who aren’t gambling themselves.
In this cost of living crisis, the federal government gives households rebates on electricity bills, and it could help people manage their gambling by banning ads, which costs taxpayers nothing.
Can you share a story of a person directly impacted by gambling – what’s happening on the ground in households?
A friend of mine told me of their memories as a child. When quite young, still in infants school, they had to regularly break into the house after school because their mum was at the club, and often there was no food in the house for them to make dinner for themselves and their siblings. They would just sit, waiting for mum to come home. Clearly, no one in the club was intervening either to help this woman manage her gambling and restore her family life.
There are also specific concerns for children with gambling – what are these concerns?
There is no available research on the impacts on children under 12, although anecdotally, we know that in households where a parent struggles with gambling, children often experience neglect or are at risk of violence.
We also know that the age that a child first gambles is on average at 11 to 12 years of age, including money gambling. That might be “putting a bet” on with dad while watching the footy, or it might be buying a scratchie with money that their auntie gave them for their birthday. It’s still gambling.
You highlight gambling advertising as a key driver to gambling issues – tell us about this?
After having a parent with risky gambling behaviour, the most significant predictor of future gambling problems is exposure to gambling ads.
Poker machine advertising has been banned entirely in NSW, but still exists on venues in most states, but the main form of gambling advertising is for online sports or racing betting.
But those ads are carefully designed to normalise all forms of gambling. We know that kids can now recognise the colours associated with online bookmakers, and on average know the names of several firms – even when they don’t know the rules of the sports that are being bet on.
A multi-party federal parliamentary committee gave the government a report in mid-2023, called You Win Some, You Lose More. This had 31 recommendations, including implementing a full ban on gambling marketing – ads and sponsorships – over three years because it is impossible for parents to put in place filters to protect their children from ads for a dangerous, adult product. The government has still not responded but has suggested a partial ban when we know that the majority of Australians support the call for a full ban.
What are the politics behind all of this? (there’s always politics)
The gambling industry, collectively, is extremely wealthy and protects its revenue stream ruthlessly.
They have had decades of relatively little pushback, and have skillfully played on “Aussie values” to claim that gambling is normal, simply entertainment, and not harmful. There’s been a revolving door of former MPs who move into positions with gambling companies or their lobby firms. There’s a very strong link between clubs and some MPs who are reluctant to criticise the business model of their local clubs. MPs remember the coordinated attacks on Julia Gillard when she agreed to look at regulation of poker machines in return for Andrew Wilkie’s support, and that lead directly to her dumping her promises to him.
Generally, the federal government manages online gambling and advertising on TV, radio and digitally. State regulate poker machines, lotteries, and other land based gambling. However, NSW recently banned all gambling ads from Transport NSW trains, buses and ferries. South Australia has a ban on TV ads at certain times.
Some councils take action under their wellbeing and public health responsibilities. While that is often symbolic, some now refuse to allow venues which rent land from them – like bowling or golf clubs – to have poker machines. Victoria has the most activist councils.
What’s the disinformation to look out for with this issue?
Venue management has no scruples about convincing their staff that their jobs are on the line if reform comes in because they want them to go cry in the local MP’s office. The truth is that the hospitality industry has many vacancies, so if revenue is cut, they don’t need to cut staff, just not fill those vacancies.
We’re told that clubs and hotels depend on poker machines, but no café or restaurant has a poker machine to subsidise its food and beverage business, and it still manages to stay open.
Gambling operators claim that only 1 per cent of adults have a gambling problem and everyone else is just having a flutter – but while it is likely that a small number of people have severe addictions, 20 per cen of Australians are harmed.
The social costs of gambling are in the billions – and as a community we’re all paying for increased levels of stress, violence, mental health and crime.
What can each of us do to address the issues you raise?
Recognise that gambling addiction is real – and poker machines and sports gambling apps are designed to addict. The sound and light, designed by behavioural psychologists, evoke a dopamine response. Be sympathetic – people tell me its harder to quit gambling than smoking.
Don’t fall for the line that clubs must have poker machines to provide community grants – they are using a deferred tax rebate to give out club or community grants, and by law, they can give half of that money to themselves to cover business expenses.
Demand decision makers – from council, state and federal MPs – take the public health crisis of gambling harm seriously – and make decisions to protect individuals and the community, rather than protecting profits.
Take local action – if you belong to an organisation, suggest holding your meetings in venues without gambling. This might help some of your members who, secretly, are struggling to control gambling and have excluded themselves from poker machine venues to stay safe. If there are no venues without gambling, you should consider what that tells you about your local community!
Thank you to Dr Kate da Costa for making us aware of this significant issue impacting so many of our fellow Australians and how the gambling sector is enabled to do this.
Let’s draw the line between the issues we all care about – including how our elections are run – and our informed vote as we all walk into the polling booth in the coming months to elect the people who will make decisions for us on these vital issues. It really is up to us!
See other articles in this Women’s Agenda series here:
- ‘Biases are supercharged’: Tracey Spicer on what women should know about AI
- How the death of Julie-Ann Finney’s son prompted her advocacy for better veteran mental health support
- Why becoming more politically active is the best new year’s resolution you can make
- We’ve just experienced Australia’s hottest spring on record. Here’s what that means for all of us
- What is the most powerful thing we can do to support asylum seekers and refugees? Jana Favero explains
- Why is abortion suddenly back in the headlines? Here’s what you need to know