The report, released last year, found sports-betting ads had reached “saturation levels” across all media, up 320 per cent over the 11 years to 2021.
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Tabcorp’s next challenge will likely be negotiating the Australian government’s response to the House of Representatives committee report on online gambling, chaired by Labor MP Peta Murphy, who died of cancer in December.
“Saturation advertising ensures our future losses,” Murphy wrote in the report. “Gambling advertising is grooming children and young people to gamble and encourages riskier behaviour. The torrent of advertising is inescapable.”
The report included in its multiple recommendations a proposal to progressively prohibit all forms of gambling advertising over a three-year period. It was a proposal McLachlan rejected while AFL chief.
The report was made public nearly a year ago, on June 23, 2023. Since then, the government has provided repeated assurances that the recommendations were being carefully considered, yet, to date, there has been no response. Multiple reports indicate consultation with media, including Nine Entertainment, the owner of this masthead, and others, with limited consultation involving public health experts.
Tabcorp is one of the two major wagering operators dominating the market in Australia. Its 2023 annual report discloses revenue of $2.4 billion, of which $1.8 billion (72.3 per cent) is derived from wagering (its key rival, Sportsbet, raked in nearly $400 million more). Tabcorp operates more than 4000 terrestrial wagering venues (pubs, clubs, agencies and on-course) and claims 805,000 digital account customers.
The sports gambling ecosystem in Australia is a highly monetised, symbiotic relationship between broadcasting, wagering, and sporting organisations, facilitated by mostly tame governments, who happily take their cut via tax. It is notable that Australians lose about $25 billion a year on legal gambling, the largest per capita losses in the world according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
There is a never-ending stream of advertising (via broadcast and social media) that not only disrupts people’s enjoyment of sport – but more insidiously, normalises gambling. There is increasing evidence that children exposed to gambling advertising are more likely to gamble and to develop harmful gambling behaviours.
Tabcorp would argue it supports a ban on gambling ads, as well as the establishment of a national regulator. This may well be a case of pulling up the drawbridge to hinder its rivals gaining market share, but it is at odds with McLachlan’s position as AFL chief executive, in which he said that ads on social media should be the focus, not those on broadcast television. At this stage, an ad ban seems unlikely.
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But whatever happens, the cosy relationship between gambling, sport, government and broadcasting is as solid and entrenched as it could be. The damage to the community, especially young people, and to the integrity of sport, appears to matter little when everyone’s pockets are full.
Charles Livingstone is a gambling researcher and associate professor in the School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine at Monash University.
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