Media release – Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, 9 June 2024
ADVOCATES CALL FOR LONG AWAITED GAMBLING REFORM
Mark, who is a recovering gambling addict and now staunch advocate for gambling reform, said the toxic effect of intensive gambling advertising in Australia was creating addiction and making it very hard for addicts to recover.
“As an ex-gambler that loves my sport, I cannot watch it now because of the gambling ad wrap arounds,” he said. “The ex-gamblers I mentor feel the same. When even watching sport is denied to us because of its capture to gambling interests, I grieve for so many and especially the next generation.”
Mr Wilkie said it was way beyond time for widespread reform that genuinely minimised the human cost of gambling.
“It’s been nearly a year since the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs handed down its report into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm,” he said. “Yet we are yet to see the Federal Government implement any of the 31 recommendations, including most notably a ban on gambling advertising.
“The Government must stop pandering to the gambling industry, the media and the big sporting codes, and ban all gambling advertising. Until that happens, people, including children, continue to be bombarded with gambling ads that normalise the predatory practice.
“It’s also important that the Tasmanian Government re-commit to implementing the mandatory pre-commitment system for all poker machine players that it first announced in 2022.”
Reverend Costello also called for both the Federal Government and State Government to take action to regulate the impact the gambling industry had on people.
“The multi-partisan recommendation to ban gambling advertising is exactly what the public want to protect their children,” he said. “Why has it taken 12 months to respond? We fear it’s the power of the vested interests, such as the AFL, NRL, Seven, Nine and Foxtel, who are totally opposed to this ban.
“Tasmania has been leading Australia in poker machine reform with the cashless card, but we know the vested interests of the Tasmanian Hospitality Association are opposing this and we urge the Premier not to capitulate to them.”
