AMA welcomes recommendation to ban online gambling ads
The Australian Medical Association has welcomed a parliamentary inquiry’s recommendation to ban all advertisements for online gambling within three years.
The inquiry’s report, ‘You win some, you lose more’, calls for a phased approach towards banning the ads across all media platforms to protect young Australians, who are the target of “grooming” by betting companies.
The AMA also welcomes a key recommendation to establish an online gambling regulator tasked with providing national regulatory oversight, but maintains its longstanding calls — dating back to 2013 — for an independent body that also regulates physical gambling sites.
AMA President Professor Steve Robson urged the federal government to act on the 31 recommendations, which followed years of advocacy by the AMA on the many risks of online gambling platforms and advertising.
“The AMA emphatically welcomes the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs’ report, which calls for a complete prohibition on all online gambling advertising and sponsorship within three years,” Professor Robson said.
“There has been an explosion of online gambling and associated advertising, which is insidious in its nature of targeting young Australians and exploiting gambling’s commercial relationship with sport.
“Sport is Australia’s favourite pastime, but it has been infiltrated by gambling companies with advertisements that manipulate vulnerable audiences to gamble online.”
In the report, inquiry chairwoman Peta Murphy MP said a comprehensive ban on all gambling advertising on all media “that leaves no room for circumvention” was needed, as partial bans did not work.
Professor Robson said gambling addiction had far reaching impacts on mental health and wellbeing and banning advertisements would be a positive step towards protecting young Australians from falling into the grips of gambling addiction.
“Gambling addiction is linked with comorbid mental health disorders and substance abuse, and can cause family breakdowns and financial distress,” Professor Robson said.
“It must be treated as a health issue that is free of stigma and treated by qualified health professionals.”
The AMA also agrees with the inquiry’s finding that there are “few safeguards to protect people with gambling disorder from online gambling harm” and welcomes recommendations to develop a comprehensive national strategy between the Commonwealth and state governments to prevent harm caused by online gambling.
It also welcomes a recommendation to provide better help for health practitioners to identify gambling harm when assessing patients.
In March, Professor Robson gave evidence to the parliamentary inquiry, where he warned that current regulations and licensing regimes for online gambling were “largely ineffective” in preventing harm and called for immediate action to limit exposure.
