AFL must make a stand to stop problem gambling

More than 100 players and coaches in the AFL have gambling addictions — and it’s time for the AFL to step up and stop taking dollars from gambling organisations, writes Michael McGuire.

After its miserable failure in how it handled the racist attacks on ex-Sydney Swans player Adam Goodes, the AFL should recover some of its lost moral standing by declining to take any more dollars from gambling organisations.

Problem gambling is increasing, but one of the biggest growth areas has been in sport betting. It’s impossible to watch TV these days without being inundated with new ways to lose money.

There’s always arguments about how far sport should push into societal problems, but surely the AFL has a duty of care to players.

A report over the weekend said more than 100 players and coaches in the AFL have gambling addictions, with two current players losing more than $1 million.

Gambling counsellor Jan Beames claimed younger players were “groomed’’ into a gambling culture by older teammates.

The response from the AFL’s Steve Hocking was wishy-washy. He said soon-to-be-appointed mental-health officers would help provide understanding of why players gambled. But that is a reactive position, trying to fix a problem already ruining lives. He wouldn’t comment on the gambling “epidemic”.

A small start from the AFL would be to ditch its sponsorship with BetEasy and tell clubs to do the same with their gambling sponsors.

But that would require leadership. Never a strength of the AFL. Chief executive Gillon McLachlan strikes me as a man so out of his depth he should wear water wings to work.

It’s not just the AFL that should take a stand. Cricket Australia, Football Federation Australia and the Australian Rugby Union are in bed with bet365.com.

Maybe if all sports banded together they could find the required intestinal fortitude. Australians are the world’s biggest punters. A survey by H2 Gambling Capital found Australians lost an average $1300 a year gambling. This is 40 per cent more than Singapore, which came in second. And it’s only going to get worse.

The danger in the ubiquity of gambling on sport is that younger and younger people start punting.

The avalanche of sport betting in the past decade or more has seen a new generation growing up thinking gambling is a harmless, even fun exercise.

The Australian Gambling Research Centre says 23 per cent of young men had their first bet before they turned 18 and 70 per cent had experienced harm from gambling.

Of course, even if all these sports came together as one, gambling wouldn’t stop. But it would send a strong signal to players and fans that gambling is not harmless, it destroys more than it creates and great care should be taken.