Social media’s too risky for kids but gambling’s OK? PM’s each-way bet stinks

Ryan had his first bet at just 15. He entered the TAB in his school uniform to place the bet and no one asked for ID or even questioned him. They just took his money, which was meant for his lunch. Ryan was addicted before he was 18.

The Albanese government is proposing that the Ryans of this world be protected from social media with a ban to be imposed on those 16 years or younger. It is compelling to hear the reasons proffered. The government questions the social licence of these media companies, saying they have failed to protect children.

Credit: Matt Golding

While my instinct is to support this measure, I am aware of the pushback. Companies and commentators say there are difficulties of age identification and the loopholes for enforcement. But what amazes me is that the Albanese government, in proposing this, still rejects these very same arguments that were part of the Murphy inquiry into online gambling.

The parliamentary panel – which included Labor, Liberal, National, Greens and independent members and was led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy – recommended a total ban on gambling ads, both online and via free-to-air media, phased in over three years.

But a partial gambling ad ban is the government’s likely response. Why? Because it has caved in to the vested interests who want to groom our kids as fodder for future gambling.

Apparently, the social licence of the betting companies – in league with the AFL, the NRL and the commercial media companies – that deluge us with 1 million gambling ads a year isn’t problematic.

The late Labor MP Peta Murphy during a parliamentary hearing into online gambling.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

They run arguments that if gambling ads were banned, punters would go offshore to illegal sites. But that hasn’t happened in European nations where ads are banned. They say it will affect junior sport, which gets a pitiful amount from the AFL and the NRL. They even say it will end the future of free-to-air television. But gambling ads are less than 5 per cent of their advertising take.

So why a sudden push for a social media ban? The Murphy report has gathered dust for 18 months in a nation with the world’s greatest per capita losses and the greatest gambling harm.

I think it is simply the power of the vested interests putting profit before protection of our kids, and I have been surprised to see the PM repeating the lines of their lobbyists.

Six weeks back, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told me it was prohibitionists that really worried him. He could not name any when I asked who was trying to ban all gambling. But 72 per cent of Australians want a total ban on gambling ads. He doubled down last week, saying: “People have a right. I don’t begrudge them their right to have a bet.”

Neither do any of us. No one is advocating to ban gambling, and punters know exactly where to go for a bet without the ads. Why keep muddying the waters with the gambling industry’s lines?

People have a right to smoke, but we have banned smoking ads. We are just asking the same because the evidence shows that every gambling ad seen by a child can lead to harm in later life, particularly as it is associated with their football and cricket heroes.

The PM says pokies are the problem, and they do not advertise so it is not advertising. The pokies do not need to advertise because they are on every fifth block, and Australia has 75 per cent of the world’s pokies in pubs and clubs. Elsewhere, pokies are confined to casinos, which is destination gambling.

By contrast, Sportsbet takes $2.2 billion out of Australia each year without one shop or outlet. It is all advertising particularly associated with sport. As the founder of Paddy Power (now Sportsbet), Stewart Kenny, told the ABC from Ireland: “If you want to protect children, you need a total ad ban. If you want to protect the obscene profits of bookies, you have a partial ban.”

PM, why reach for a commendable protection of kids on social media and then leave them exposed to gambling interests that have blown their social licence?

Tim Costello is chief advocate with the Alliance for Gambling Reform.