Michael McGuire: There is barely a televised sport that doesn’t at some point promote gambling

AUSTRALIANS have the dubious distincion of being the biggest punters on Earth. But now, it’s starting to hurt many of us and no one’s doing anything to stop the ads that are finding new ways for us lose our cash, says Michael McGuire.

THE best thing about next week’s Melbourne Cup is that it means the Spring Gambling Carnival is almost over.

Though the relief is not as great as it used to be.

There was a time when, after the gambling carnival was over, sport fans could safely turn their TVs back on and not be inundated with new ways to lose their cash.

Now, thanks to the moral flexibility of the people who run actual sports such as football, cricket, rugby league, soccer and the rest, we are deluged with betting 12 months a year.

At least those sports could survive without gambling.

You couldn’t say the same for horse racing. An activity so dull that the only way to make it interesting was to allow people to bet on it.

And the result is that horse racing has had issues with corruption in the past.

We are being inundated with gambling ads offering new ways for us to lose our cash. Picture: Thinkstock

Other sports shouldn’t be too surprised when the same inevitably happens to them.

It’s well recognised that Australians are the biggest punters on Earth.

But the statistics themselves are still shocking.

A survey last year by consultants H2 Gambling Capital found Australians, for each resident adult, lost about $1300 a year gambling.

This is 40 per cent more than Singapore, which came in second.

Australians are constantly being urged to gamble. We are surrounded by it, immersed in it.

But strangely, betting on the nags has possibly become the least of our problems.

The flat-out social evil of pokie machines has ruined an untold number of lives.

The decision to allow them in every pub that wanted them was one of the worst decisions taken by any government in the history of South Australia.

Now, we have the creeping, insidious presence of sports betting to add to the mix.

We are bombarded by ads featuring shouty English actors or Samuel L. Jackson administering the last rites to his career.

Others emphasise how much fun betting is. Most of them imply, despite the rushed “gamble responsibly’’ message, that winning is the easiest thing in the world. The danger is that sport betting has not only becoming normalised but that it’s exposing younger and younger kids to gambling.

There is barely a televised sport that doesn’t at some point promote gambling.

In August, a report by the Australian Gambling Research Centre said 23 per cent of young men surveyed had their first bet before turning 18.

It found advertising worked because those surveyed saw them as an “appealing, low-risk or no-loss betting option’’.

And most worrying, it found 70 per cent were at risk or already experiencing harm from gambling.

The odds are those numbers will only worsen.