The number of Australians betting on sport has doubled in five years, and a third of spending on bets is placed by people with a gambling problem, according to new polling.
Roy Morgan polling of 16,000 Australians found 15.5% had bet on sport in the 12 months to March. It also revealed problem gamblers made up almost 20% of some sports betting companies’ customer base.
The polling implied 3.26 million Australians had made a sports wager in the year to March – more than double the 7% found to have bet between April 2019 and March 2020.
The results were released on Tuesday by the Alliance for Gambling Reform to mark the first anniversary of a major parliamentary report calling for a ban on online gambling ads and making other recommendations.
The group’s interim chief executive, Martin Thomas, said: “These are huge numbers and they highlight how a predatory online gambling industry is ensnaring a whole new generation into gambling.
“We know that last year there were over a million gambling ads bombarding our screens. We have to stop this.”
A relentless wave of gambling advertising was “normalising” betting and “grooming children and young people to gamble”, he warned.
Since January last year, Morgan has used the problem gambling severity index to classify respondents as having no problem, low risk, moderate risk or problem gambling.
It found that one in 10 Australian sports bettors – an estimated 337,000 people – are problem gamblers. Despite representing just 10% of punters, problem gamblers wagered about a third (34%) of the total value of bets. A further 17% of punters – an estimated 544,000 people – were deemed moderate risk.
Australians lose more than $25bn each year to gambling, the highest per capita spend in the world.
In June last year a parliamentary committee chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy called for ads for online gambling to be banned across all media and at all times within three years.
Despite Anthony Albanese labelling gambling ads “annoying”, the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, acknowledging the status quo is “not good enough” and Peter Dutton calling for a ban on ads during sports matches, no response has yet been given to the inquiry’s report.
Thomas noted that the inquiry found an “inescapable torrent of gambling advertising is normalising online gambling and its links with sport, grooming children and young people to gamble, and encouraging riskier behaviour”.
Last week Rowland said the government remained “firmly committed to minimising harms from online wagering”, and was still engaging with health experts and industry.
Kate Chaney, the independent MP for Curtin who was part of the Murphy inquiry, claimed the government had “sat on this report for 12 months”.
“It’s time the government showed some courage and stood up to the gambling companies, media and sporting codes,” she said.
The independent senator David Pocock, a former Wallabies rugby captain, said the Albanese government “don’t seem to have the guts to stand up to an incredibly powerful industry”.
Susan Templeman, the Labor MP who became committee chair after Murphy’s death, said there was “keen interest” from committee members to hear the government’s response.
“We respect the work that the late Peta Murphy and committee members did in hearing from witnesses on this complex issue,” she told Guardian Australia.
“Of course we recognise that the government has already taken actions but, as the anniversary of the tabling of the report nears, I’ll be formally proposing that we urge the government to table its response.”
• In Australia, Gambling Help Online is available on 1800 858 858. The National Debt Helpline is at 1800 007 007. In the UK, support for problem gambling can be found via the NHS National Problem Gambling Clinic on 020 7381 7722, or GamCare on 0808 8020 133. In the US, call the National Council on Problem Gambling at 800-GAMBLER or text 800GAM.
