The Labor Government has been urged to outlaw strategic inducements, such as bonus bets and cashback offers, that are said to be luring Australians into gambling problems.
Anyone who has opened an online gambling account has likely uttered something along the lines of “it’s a free bet, it doesn’t count”, but what is the reality behind these free offerings, and just how dangerous are they?
The Alliance for Gambling Reform has blamed weak advertising and consumer protection laws for these kinds of promotions that it claims are designed to make customers believe they are placing a “safer bet” that is more likely to win—or inconsequential should they lose. A paper released by the alliance warned that these supposed “risk free” enticements are “cynically targeting people with gambling problems through tailored, personalised marketing”.
The paper claimed that these kinds of reward bets are “often only able to be redeemed in a way that encourages further betting, and are subject to various terms and conditions, which tend to be difficult to find and understand for the average consumer”.
The paper raised concern about emails, texts and phone calls from gambling companies to people, offering or advertising such inducements. It claimed that online wagering companies and conventional casinos often offer inducements such as refund or cashback offers, sign-up offers, more attractive odds or bonuses, or paying out winnings on losing bets. “Frequently, rewards must be redeemed in a form that encourages betting and aims to trigger specific consumer responses,” the paper claimed.
“Contrary to the marketing messages, and the interpretation by gamblers, that inducements offer a prudent way to bet, evidence suggests that uptake of inducement offers is actually associated with more harmful betting behaviours. These harmful behaviours include intensified purchasing of the wagering product, placing of riskier bets, chasing losses, and underestimation of gambling problems”.
Martin Thomas, the interim CEO of the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR), claimed inducements could drive “some of the riskiest gambling behaviours” but were “woefully ignored by current regulations”.
A landmark June 2023 report into gambling, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, called on the government to immediately prohibit all online gambling inducements and inducement advertising. More than a year on, the government has yet to respond to the report that called for a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling, among 31 recommendations.
The alliance is urging the Labor government to act on the recommendations outlined in the report, citing data that revealed the number of Australians betting on sport had doubled in five years, and a third of spending on bets was placed by people with a gambling problem.
Labor MP Susan Templeman, who now chairs the parliament’s standing committee on social policy and legal affairs, wrote to the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, last week asking for an update on when the government’s response would come.
Rowland spoke to parliament, raising concerns about the consequences of an advertising ban that could push ads into a different space and calling the area of policy “complex”. Nonetheless, she promised a response to the report. “This government and I have made it very clear that the status quo in relation to wagering advertising is untenable,” she said.
“We want to get these reforms right, to deliver both harm reduction and cultural change. It’s not a straightforward exercise, and we’re determined to ensure that our response is capable of implementation and makes a real difference when it comes to harm reduction”.
Shadow communications minister David Coleman urged the government to speed up the process. “It’s extremely hard to understand why it has taken the government so long to resolve this issue,” he said.