The government will limit gambling advertising in what it has called the “most significant reform on gambling” Australia has ever seen, but has fallen short of key recommendations from a Labor-led report handed down more than 1,000 days ago.
Gambling advertising will be banned in sports venues and capped in TV and radio broadcasts in a series of measures announced by the prime minister at the National Press Club on Thursday that advocates have warned do not go far enough.
Anthony Albanese has been under pressure to respond to a landmark report led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy that was handed to the government in June 2023 and contained 31 recommendations, including a phased-out ban of all forms of online gambling advertising.
The new reforms will see gambling ads:
Capped to three ads an hour on broadcast television between 6am and 8:30pm;
Banned on radio during school drop off and pick-up times;
Banned from online platforms unless a user over 18 has logged on to an account; users will still have the option to opt-out of the advertising.
Ban celebrities and sports players from appearing in gambling adds and odds-style ads.
Ban gambling ads from sports venues and on players’ and officials’ uniforms.
Albanese called it “the most significant reform on gambling that has ever been implemented”, but the latest announcement falls short of a model the former communications minister Michelle Rowland had been considering.
That model, which had also been heavily criticised by gambling reform advocates for not going far enough, proposed a ban on all gambling ads on social media and banned gambling ads on TV an hour before and after live sport. It also proposed a cap of two ads an hour until 10pm.
Albanese said the government will finally table a formal response to the Murphy report when parliament returns on 12 May, the day of the federal budget.
Murphy’s husband, Rod Glover, said his wife would have been “proud” of the government’s progress and thanked the communications minister, Anika Wells, for her dedication.
“The outcome achieved today is not perfect, but policy rarely is. This package represents a significant step forward on an issue the community cares deeply about, and I hope it is supported by all those in parliament and beyond,” Glover wrote in a social media post.
The chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Tim Costello, called it a “timid response”, but welcomed an acknowledgment from the prime minister that “we aren’t protecting kids from gambling”.
“In the nation that has the greatest gambling harm in the world, at least we have had a response,” he told ABC TV.
Costello added that the onus should be on gambling companies to not advertise, rather than on adults to “opt-out” under the new rules.
Independent MP Kate Chaney, who was on the committee with Murphy, said the response is “big on talk, small on substance.”
“It appears to have been designed to give certainty to powerful vested interests rather than to reduce harm to the many Australians suffering from the impacts of gambling addiction,” Chaney said.
Independent senator David Pocock was more scathing, accusing the government of being captured by vested interests. He said it would not “reverse the rampant normalisation of gambling as an inseparable part of sport”.
The Greens senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, said a full ban on online gambling advertising was crucial to stop the “insidious and predatory” behaviour by gambling industry.
But Labor MP Louise Miller-Frost, who led a group of caucus members pushing the prime minister for reform, said she was “thrilled” by the announcement.
“Myself and a number of backbenchers have been working on this with ministers, with the prime minister, and to actually get it across the line is very exciting”.
The government will additionally block illegal offshore gaming sites and ban online “keno-type” products which “represent a huge percentage of Australian gambling losses”.
“We are getting the balance right, letting adults have a punt if they want to, but making sure that our children don’t see betting ads everywhere they look,” Albanese said.
“Because we don’t want kids growing up thinking that footy and gambling are inextricably linked. We want Australians to love sport for what it is. It’s joy, it’s heartbreak. 43 years between comps for South Sydney, it’s highs and it’s lows.”
Albanese dismissed suggestions he had ignored the major recommendations of the report and said “the government decides positions, not committees.”
A 2019 report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), on the impact of government restrictions on gambling advertising during live sport established in 2017, found a partial ban can lead to more advertising.
“A comparison of the volume of gambling advertising spots in comparable periods before and after the broadcasting rule change found that the total volume of gambling spots on Australian television and radio increased by 50% between 2016–17 and 2018–19,” the report said.
Free TV Australia said it welcomed the focus on protecting children and vulnerable Australians from gambling harm, but said the measures would have to be “mitigated” to protect broadcasters from losing out.
“We are concerned about the revenue impact these restrictions will have on services that are required to be advertiser-funded,” Free TV Australia’s chief executive, Bridget Fair, said.
Meanwhile, Responsible Wagering Australia, the peak body for the gambling industry, called the changes “draconian” and a “kick in the guts” and said they were made with no consultation.
“For an industry that has engaged in good faith and delivered meaningful reform, this announcement today is disappointing,” said the body’s chief executive, Kai Cantwell. “This sets a dangerous precedent. Today it’s gambling advertising, tomorrow it’s alcohol, then it’s sugary drinks, fast food, critical minerals and who knows what else comes next.”
There is widespread support for gambling reform across parliament. The former opposition leader Peter Dutton had committed to a gambling ad blackout for an hour before and after live sports broadcasting, while the Greens and independent MPs including Andrew Wilkie, Kate Chaney and Pocock have pushed for reform.
Members of Labor’s caucus have been agitating for the government to act on the recommendations of the report. A group of Labor MPs said there was “frustration” over the lack of response or communication with MPs on the issue for nearly three years, despite widespread public support.
