Australians lose almost twice as much from gambling as people in the US, and poker machines – the biggest single source of losses – are more common in the nation’s suburbs than public toilets, ATMs and post boxes, a new report has found.
The Grattan Institute report – A better bet: How Australia should prevent gambling harm – concludes that to limit the damage from gambling, the government needs to not only ban gambling ads but introduce a mandatory pre-commitment loss limit for online gambling and poker machines.