We’re calling on the next Australian Government to recognise gambling, and the harm the industry inflicts on people, as a public health issue. Find out more on the Public Health Association of Australia’s 2025 Election Priorities site.
Malcolm Baalman
The proliferation of gambling, and the enormous economic losses it inflicts on individuals and families, is one of Australia’s nastiest public health challenges.
Multinational and Australian gambling corporations’ prey on millions of Australians every day.
Their business model is entirely based on creating addiction, and they target young people, older people, women, men – all of us – with relentless advertising. They even cleverly target children and young adults through online gaming novelties, exposing them to wagering behaviour, all designed to trigger lifelong vulnerability to the gambling industry.
Other major corporate sectors, including the hospitality and sporting sectors, have become deeply enmeshed in the gambling industry. These industries are drawn in to share the ‘profits’ extracted from ordinary people, in return for helping normalise gambling, as if it were as natural as going out for a meal and watching a game of sport.
But rather than being hard earned, every dollar of that profit is entirely extracted from the industries victims.
Gambling is also a well-known driver of other serious harms, including mental illness, domestic violence, and suicide.
The promotion of gambling has expanded dramatically in the past decade, with many sporting broadcasts now saturated in advertising.
The Australian people want this fixed urgently. Polls show that around three quarters of Australians want something done about the harms of gambling, starting with the obvious move of banning gambling advertising.
Under this public pressure, at least some politicians have decided that action is needed. In 2023, a cross-partisan committee in federal Parliament produced a comprehensive report with 31 recommendations, governing advertising, gambling regulation, and support for victims. The parliamentary study and recommendations are widely known as the ‘Murphy report’ after the committee chair, the late Peta Murphy MP.
Sadly, there has been no action out of the Albanese Government in the two years since the report arrived. Multiple attempts at advocacy for action have largely been blocked by the influence of the gambling, hospitality and sport industry lobbies, protecting their profits.
State and territory governments are responsible for related regulatory weaknesses.
Promises of reform in recent years by the Tasmanian and NSW governments relating to poker machines – arguably the worst part of the gambling problem – have been slowed to a halt by industry lobbying and delaying tactics. Efforts in the ACT to address Canberra’s own poker machine problem have likewise been repeatedly stalled at the political level.
It’s possible to see a vision for political action on gambling, but it will require strong and persistent community pressure on politicians to break the influence of corporate lobbies.
Possible rapid reforms of the poker machine sector include requiring universal pre-commitment systems with a default limit, effective ‘one button’ self-exclusion systems, prohibitions on inducements, marketing restrictions, and adequate monitoring and enforcement backed by fines large enough to deter high-profit multinational corporations.
Lobbying and political donations rules also need major reform. At present, the system of lobbying transparency for the federal government is paper-thin, based on a voluntary code that covers private lobbying firms, but not lobbying directly by specific corporations or their sector associations.
The influence of money in politics is a major part of this problem.
The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) hopes to see revised political donation laws that will prohibit gambling operators and industries from donating to politicians or parties. Unhealthy sector donation bans, similar to existing state bans on tobacco industry donations, have been proposed in federal parliament several times, but were not included in the highly controversial Electoral Bill passed by Parliament earlier this year.
PHAA also argues that political parties should not enter into any pre-election agreements with gambling industry entities on regulation or taxation of the industry.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform, led by Tim Costello, has been a leading voice for reform in Australia. Rev Costello is a familiar figure in Parliament House, arguing for political support to save lives and prevent a profit-hungry industry from stealing away the household wealth and personal health of millions of Australians. But even the Prime Minister has turned down his pleas.
With a federal election just weeks away, every Australian – whether personally affected by gambling or not – has a chance to make change happen at the political level. Elections are the most powerful moment when members of parliament, or prospective candidates, will listen to us.
Australia’s public health community is vigorously advocating for gambling reform and control. PHAA launched its Election Priorities for 2025 campaign in January, and will be pressing all election-contesting parties and candidates to make Australia healthier, by fighting back against gambling giants and many other harmful industries.
Malcolm Baalman is PHAA’s Policy and Advocacy Manager.
Image: Supplied
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