New Anglicare Tasmania program aimed at curbing gambling and sports betting addiction

A new program by Anglicare Tasmania aims to combat gambling and sports betting in young people, after research showed some worrying statistics.

From left, Anglicare Tasmania General Manager Housing and Community Services Noel Mundy, Huon Valley PCYC Manager Bianca Jackman, Dimity Mika from Anglicare's Get into the Game program, Huon Valley PCYC President Steve Price and Huon Valley PCYC Committee member Rick Mills. (Supplied)

Anglicare Tasmania is aiming to reduce the impact of sports betting, joining forces with a Huon Valley recreation club to tackle gambling at a grassroots level.

The program, Get into the Game, targets younger men and women by trying to reduce gambling promotion in community sporting clubs.

Anglicare’s General Manager of Housing and Community Services Noel Mundy said new research by Anglicare showed betting was not just on large sporting events such as the AFL Grand Final, but on underage and community sports.

“People are bombarded with sports gambling and it isn’t just your big events now that have included gambling,” he said.

“This is aimed at being an early intervention program and stopping gambling at clubs before it starts and putting the focus back on the actual game and not sport betting.”

Recent Anglicare research showed one in four men under-18 dabble in sports betting.

“This program isn’t about demonising gambling,” Mr Mundy said.

From left, Huon Valley PCYC Manager Bianca Jackman, Huon Valley PCYC Committee member Rick Mills, Huon Valley PCYC President Steve Price and Anglicare Tasmania General Manager Housing and Community Services Noel Mundy. (Supplied)

“We are just concerned about what the introduction of gambling and sports betting at such a young age will mean for our young people.”

Huon Valley’s PCYC is the first organisation in the state to sign up.

Mr Munday said groups such as the PCYC were an “ideal candidate” for sharing the program.

“The PCYC is located in a great position in the Huon Valley and has associations with so many local sporting clubs and groups – they can share so much knowledge and information to those groups.”

Independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie said the rise in gambling and addiction seen in young people could be attributed in sports’ over-association with gambling.

“Sadly, sport in Australia has become as much or more about gambling, as it is about the game itself,” he said.

“More needs to be done to address these trends and it is commendable that Anglicare and the Tasmanian Government have teamed up to launch the Get into the Game program.