PETER KHALIL MP
MEMBER FOR WILLS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SPEECH
MONDAY 20 MARCH 2023
Subjects: Sports Gambling
PETER KHALIL, MEMBER FOR WILLS:
Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Well, the 2023 AFL season has got off to a cracking start; particularly given that the Magpies have defeated the reigning premiers Geelong, thumping them at the MCG on Friday night. I’ll remind the Deputy Prime Minister of that a little bit later as an avid Geelong supporter that he is; but right now, I want to speak about an issue many people in my community care about, and that’s the over saturation of gambling advertising during these sporting events.
As a lot of people huddled around the TV or at stadiums last week, they were smashed with gambling ads from right before the bounce, right till after the sign all the way through sports embedded gambling ads normalized gambling, especially among young people. Australia’s gambling habit puts us on the top of a global list we don’t want to be on.
Our losses per capita are amongst the highest in the world-online gambling alone- Australians spent about $7 billion on in 2021, and online gambling has made gambling more convenient easy to hide. It’s been spurred along by the never ending barrage of gambling ads, in Victoria there were 948 gambling ads on daily free to air TV in 2021. This equates to one in every 91 seconds, according to the Victorian responsible gambling foundation.
I’m particularly concerned about the impact of this advertising on young people, many of whom can tell you the technical aspects of gambling. And I’m concerned for marginalized groups who experience inequality and gambling related harms. So I’m pleased that the Albanese government is introducing reforms that include nationally consistent messages around the potential harms of online gambling; messages that send a clearer, stronger message about the impacts of gambling and the need for us to curb and reform it, thank you.
ENDS