Australian poll reveals massive support for gambling ad ban

A recent survey by The Australia Institute has found out that over 70% of Australians want to see gambling advertisements banned from television.

The survey questioned a nationally weighted sample of over 1,000 Australians about whether or not the country should ban ads promoting tobacco, gambling, junk food during children’s viewing, alcohol, and fossil fuels. Most of the respondents agreed to ban all of these ads, though their responses varied across the type of ad.

According to the poll, 71% of total respondents agreed that gambling ads should be done away with, while 11% voted for them to remain. Based on gender, 70% of male respondents and 72% of female respondents were against gambling advertisements. Some 69% of youths between the ages of 18-29 agreed for the ads to go, with 64% and 70% assent for ages 30-39 and 40-49 respectively. In terms of political affiliations, the majority of the supporters for the ban come from Australians identifying as “Independent/Other”, “Greens” and “Labor” voters.

In 2017, Australia banned gambling advertisements during live sports telecasts between 5am and 8:30pm. Previously, the nation disallowed betting ads on programs labelled ‘G’ or lower from 6-8:30am and 4-7pm, or in programs directed at children between 5am and 8:30pm. These rules have, however, done nothing in deterring betting advertisers. According to Nielsen research, an average of 948 gambling ads were broadcast daily on free-to-air TV in Victoria alone in 2021. Another study found that in 2016 there were four times as many gambling ads an hour in sports programming than in non-sports programming.

READ: Sports fans challenge findings from gambling ad study

The prevalence of gambling advertisements in sports programmes has led to a renewed call for stricter regulations.

“I am deeply concerned about the normalisation of sports gambling and the proximity of gambling advertising to broadcast sport, particularly AFL and ARL football codes,” said Victorian MP Zoe Daniel, a freshly elected ‘teal’ independent.

“When children are having conversations about sports betting ‘multis’, wanting to set up sports betting apps on their phones and even betting on the federal election, we have an issue,” she continued, referring to the time when her son’s schoolmates made bets on her chances of winning the election.

The news comes after a recent report revealed that New South Wales residents had lost more than $135 billion on poker machines over the past 30 years.

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Marty Stowe

1 year ago

Sick of continually seeing gambling ads on free to air channels. During Channel 10s showing of The Traitor, every ad break aired 2 or 3 gambling ads….
Pretty disgusting in my view, and it needs to stop.

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