Planned gambling ads reform in Australia has been delayed until next year due to resistance from across the industry.
The reforms from the Albanese government (Australia’s federal government), proposed by Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, included various measures, including banning online gambling ads, restricting gambling ads during sporting matches, and limiting ads to two per hour on television.
However, the proposal has now been delayed until 2025, according to Sky News, after it failed to gain Senate support. Those opposed to the bill have raised concerns about the loss of funding from gambling ads for traditional media, as well as logistical issues about putting the reforms into practice.
“There is simply is not going to be enough time this week to pass that legislation,” Employment Minister Murray Watt told Sky News on Sunday, November 24.
However, Rowland’s campaign will continue next year when the issue returns for debate once again. An exact date has not yet been confirmed.
Why are the reforms around gambling ads important?
The measures stem from concerns about the prevalent nature of gambling ads in sport and their potential impact on children. In Australia, gambling has become an increasing welfare focus, with estimates suggesting that Australians lose approximately $25 billion on legal forms of gambling each year, according to the Australian Institution of Health and Welfare. That represents the largest per capita losses in the world.
That doesn’t take the social cost of gambling into account either, such as adverse financial impacts, emotional and psychological costs, relationship and family impacts, and productivity loss and work impacts. That has been estimated to cost the government $7 billion in Victoria alone.
The Australian Prime Minister has openly complained that the nation ‘has a gambling addiction,‘ with one third of the population regularly betting on sporting events, and previous attempts to curb the impact included tightening video game ratings.
Featured image: Flickr, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
