By Paul Sakkal
Labor faces a potentially embarrassing parliamentary defeat on a sports gambling bill as major betting firms offer an olive branch to the Albanese government anticipating a looming crack down on betting commercials.
The opposition will this week try to expose Labor when it introduces a bill to the Senate to create an hour-long buffer between sports broadcasts and gambling advertisements, a policy Opposition Leader Peter Dutton personally pushed for inside the Coalition and judges as popular.
The opposition will try to expose Labor when it introduces a bill to the Senate to create an hour-long buffer between sports broadcasts and gambling advertisements.Credit: iStock
Labor has flagged a future wagering crackdown and Responsible Wagering Australia – the peak body representing firms such as Sportsbet, bet365 and Betfair – on Monday told this masthead it would be willing to work with Labor on capping how much the industry spent on marketing.
“Responsible Wagering Australia understands community concerns surrounding the frequency of gambling advertising and is happy to work with government and industry to look at proposals such as frequency caps on broadcast advertising,” a spokesperson for the group said.
“A carefully considered approach to implementing advertising frequency reform will strengthen the existing consumer protections that RWA members already have in place.”
Asked if the Greens would support the opposition’s push, the party’s Senate business manager Sarah Hanson-Young did not rule it out and said she looked forward to seeing the details of the bill, indicating the Greens and Coalition may team up to produce a rare lost vote for the government.
Independent senator David Pocock also said he had not yet seen the bill’s details but welcomed the opposition’s stance, signalling wider support for an opposition bill that would have no prospect of passing through the Labor-majority lower house.
Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said Labor had done very little to clamp down on the gambling sector since its election, noting its move to ban the use of credit cards in gambling had been supported by the industry for years.
“It really shouldn’t matter whose idea it is,” Coleman said, “because this is clearly the right thing for the country.”
“Watching live sport is a crucial part of Australian sport and is one of the few occasions when families actually come together.”
“They should be able to enjoy those memories without having awkward discussions with their kids about what a multi is and why a player is paying $7 to score the first goal.”
Under current rules, gambling ads must stop five minutes before a sports match, except after 8.30pm when they are permitted. But gambling companies are still permitted to have company representatives – often well-known past players – spruik odds within matches.
The Senate jostling will take place at the same time as a key parliamentary inquiry into gambling harm finalises recommendations that are expected to target a wide range of the gambling sector and advertising across TV, radio and in digital mediums such as social media. The committee, chaired by Labor MP Peta Murphy, will publish its report in coming weeks.
The government has also updated gambling warning slogans and said it would announce new rules for the gambling sector after the committee revealed its recommendations.
Public polling shows gambling ads are unpopular and Dutton used the period in which the government was waiting on the committee’s recommendations to move ahead of the government and spruik his interest in protecting the sanctity of sport and watching matches with family members.
Hanson-Young said the Greens would work with parties from any side of the political spectrum to curtail commercials that were “ruining both lives and sport”.
“The gambling industry that feeds off people’s addiction seem to have little care for the impact it has on children and families watching their favourite teams,” she said.
Pocock said crossbenchers’ private members’ bills on limiting gambling ads should be considered alongside the Coalition bill and that any set of policies to thwart the normalisation of gambling among young people needed to have a wider focus than sporting broadcasts.
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