More kids gamble than play 'popular' sports. Yet our leaders are too weak to put up a fight

We're the biggest gamblers in the world, as well as the biggest losers, and it appears as though the major parties have only the weakest of plans to regulate the addictive gambling industry to limit the harm it does to our community.

The $244.3 billion in bets that Australians placed in 2022-23 mean we're the biggest gamblers on Earth. We're also the biggest losers, Australians lost $31.5 billion to gambling in 2022-23.

That's comparable to the size of the entire Northern Territory economy ($33.1 billion), and more than the $21 billion lost to gambling in all of Las Vegas.

Gambling losses are linked to suicide and family violence. Problem gamblers lose their jobs, homes and families to their addiction. Gambling inflicts enormous harm on the Australian community.

If that's not enough cause for concern, Australian children start gambling well before the supposed legal minimum age of 18.

While the Albanese government introduced laws to ban kids under 16 from using social media, it's done little to stop kids from being subject to gambling ads.

Research from the Australia Institute shows that almost one in three (30 per cent) 12-17-year-olds gamble.

This increases to almost half (46 per cent) of 18-19-year-olds, and these habits persist into adulthood.

Like Big Tobacco, the gambling industry knows if it can get kids hooked, it has a pipeline of customers for life. Almost 1 million teenagers (12-19-year-olds) gambled in the past year - this is 33.8 per cent of all teenagers, or enough to fill the MCG nine times over.

Together, Australia's teenagers gamble an estimated $231 million a year.

In fact, if you're a teenager in Australia you are more likely to have gambled in the past year then you are to have played soccer, basketball, cricket or any sport.

If gambling were a sport, it'd be by far the most popular sport among Australia's teenagers. That's just sad. What a waste.

Gambling advertising is a huge part of the problem. If you're sick to death of ads for sports betting interrupting the game, or even just your favourite TV show you're probably not alone.

Free-to-air TV shows more than a million gambling ads a year - and this is not to mention the online torrent. Thanks to advertising being introduced on streaming services, you can't escape it anywhere. In 2022, academics found that 85 per cent of 12-17 year olds have seen a gambling ad on TV in the past month.

Australia Institute polling shows that most Australians want a ban on gambling ads. It's no wonder. Apart from the damage they cause, they are intensely annoying and impossible to escape.

The Australian government's own 2023 Inquiry into online gambling (the "Murphy Review", named after the late Peta Murphy) recommended a range of policies - including a ban on advertising for online gambling - that would help reduce the number of Australians who gamble.

Australia Institute polling shows these measures would have widespread public support, but neither major party has moved to implement the inquiry's bipartisan report. The Greens and independents like Andrew Wilkie, Rebekha Sharkie and ACT senator David Pocock have been vocal campaigners for real gambling reforms, but change won't happen without the support of at least one major party.

Why would the two major parties refuse to back a policy with widespread popular support, against an industry that does demonstrable harm?

Perhaps it's because of the donations the gambling industry makes to Australian politicians.

A few years ago, an ABC investigation found that gambling-related donors made more than $80 million in political payments between 1998 and 2020.

In the run-up to the 2022 election, Sportsbet donated $19,000 to Michelle Rowland's campaign.

In the months after her election and appointment as Communications Minister, Responsible Wagering Australia - a group that represents Sportsbet, Ladbrokes, and Bet365 - picked up the tab for her lavish birthday lunch.

The minister has the power to introduce the reforms recommended by the Murphy review, but she's not alone in her connections to the gambling industry.

Last week, Reuters found that Australia's parliamentarians accepted $245,000 in free tickets to sporting events at the same time they were supposedly considering introducing a ban on ads for online gambling.

The Prime Minister alone received $29,000 in tickets.

Late last year, the Albanese government shelved plans for gambling reform, in a coincidence that would perhaps shock only Diedre Chambers.

The fact is, gambling is a huge big problem in Australia, and it's affecting more, younger people.

We can limit the damage from gambling. Not by banning gambling altogether, but with sensible regulation, as we have done for other legal but harmful industries like tobacco and alcohol.

The solutions are not hard or complicated. If we ban gambling ads, fewer people - fewer children - will be lured into gambling/a gambling habit that could last and cost a lifetime.

The next government, whichever party wins, could start by implementing the recommendations of the Murphy review - which both major parties on the inquiry agreed were a good idea.

We could go further and reform political donation laws to ban political donations from the gambling industry entirely. That would eliminate the risk of conflict of interest altogether quite neatly.

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It's quite clear that too many major party politicians feel perfectly comfortable accepting lavish gifts of fancy lunches, and sporting tickets, from industries they regulate.

The gambling industry causes so much harm and suffering and it's well within our power to reduce that suffering.

A few days ago, anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello, wrote that there was a lack of political courage from the major parties on gambling reforms. But I think it's worse than that.

The fact is, the public backs a ban on gambling advertising. So, major party politicians aren't risking any electoral backlash by implementing a ban. It requires no political courage to implement a popular policy.

What major party politicians lack on gambling reform is a sense of shame. The major parties may find that, come election day, voters feel no shame at switching their vote to disrupt the duopoly preventing gambling reforms.