Tim Costello has rejected Anthony Albanese’s suggestion he wants gambling banned and accused the prime minister of “mindlessly” repeating industry attack lines to justify a partial gambling ad ban.
On Thursday Costello, the chief advocate of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said he was “very disappointed” at Albanese. Costello insisted in 30 years of advocacy he has “never been a prohibitionist”.
Costello has been lobbying for a total gambling ad ban, in line with the bipartisan report of a parliamentary inquiry chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
Labor’s proposal is for gambling ads to be banned online, in children’s programming, during live sports broadcasts and an hour either side, but limited to two an hour in general TV programming.
On Wednesday in question time Albanese said he had met advocates including Costello and suggested that the “truth” of many advocates’ position against advertising is that they “want gambling stopped”.
The prime minister said this “would have an impact and an intrusion into people’s personal liberties which is not appropriate, in my view”.
He said the government had accepted there “should not be any advertising during children’s programs” and that the connection “between sport and gambling needs to be broken”.
“I think we need to make sure that adults can be adults but children can be children.”
On Thursday Costello responded by urging Albanese to “explain who he’s talking about”, and claimed he didn’t “even know anyone who wants to prohibit all gambling”.
“I’m actually saddened for Albo. He should be better than that. Look, I respect him. He’s been to my home. He knows exactly what my position is. It’s for reform and banning gambling ads,” Costello said.
Costello has said the gambling industry presents him as a prohibitionist and that Albanese was “mindlessly repeating the industry’s statements”.
The spat comes as new research reveals about a third of young adults who gambled in the last year started punting before the age of 18, and those who start young experienced greater harms from gambling as an adult.
Those are the results of a study by the Australian Gambling Research Centre, based at the government’s Australian Institute of Family Studies, which adds further evidence of gambling as a public health problem.
The survey, of more than 1,100 people aged 16 to 35 who had gambled in the past year, revealed that about one-third of participants (29%) had gambled before the age of 18, and 45% of all survey participants now gambled weekly.
More than two-thirds of those surveyed (68%) experienced some level of gambling harm, such as gambling more than they could afford to lose, or feeling guilty or stressed about their gambling.
Interviews with participants revealed gambling and alcohol consumption were seen as rites of passage for young people, including one who described a $50 free bet on the 2014 NRL grand final at age 18 as his initiation.
The report found “those who started gambling underage had a higher, statistically significant” score on a scale to measure problem gambling than those who did not start gambling underage.
As the Albanese government moves to implement a partial gambling ad ban, Labor MPs have been urged not to frame the issue as one of public health, as some backbenchers calling for a total ban including Mike Freelander have done.
But as experts including a professor of public health at the Australian National University, Emily Banks, have noted: “Addiction pathways are set down in adolescence.”
‘There is no escape’
Not a day goes by without Jason* wondering who he could have become if a fake ID had not fallen into his hands, setting off a gambling addiction he has been unable to escape.
At 15 he began working at McDonald’s and saved everything he earned – before his managers found a driver’s licence that looked like him on the floor of a nightclub.
At 16 he started going with them to clubs, and when the clubs closed, on to the casino, gambling on pokies.
“Lights and the dazzling sound of winning got me hooked,” Jason says. He went wherever there were pokies – to bowls clubs and RSLs. At 17 he would wait by the ATM until he was paid at 2am “and then it was off to the casino”.
The arrival of online pokies made his problem worse, draining almost all of his pay. He could only afford to live off sweet potatoes, he says, from a farm-side stall he drove more than an hour to reach.
“I would have spent in excess of $1m on poker machines,” Jason, now 44, says. “Until the last 10 years, I used to spend every penny I had.
“I’m much better with money now … but I think every day how much more I could have become if I never got that ID and never started gambling at such a young age. It’s hooked me for life. There is no escape for me, I just know I have to limit it.”
The habit also cost him his relationship: his engagement broke off eight years ago when his partner discovered he was still sneaking money into a separate bank account to gamble.
“I’ve seen counsellors, I’ve tried everything to stop, but I always end up back there.”
Minimising exposure
Earlier, Kei Sakata, the study’s lead author and acting executive manager at the Australian Gambling Research Centre, noted that both sides of the gambling ad debate agree children should not be exposed. But under a partial ban, Sakata said, children could be exposed to gambling ads outside restricted time.
“Children don’t only watch children’s programs, they watch news as well and other types of TV programs – and then you do start to see all the gambling ads.
“If we do want to protect children from exposure to gambling ads, you probably do need to consider further steps to minimise that exposure.”
Nancy Greer, an Australian Gambling Research Centre fellow, noted that gambling logos on sports jerseys and in stadiums create an “implicit association between sport and gambling” and should be considered for inclusion in the ban.
*Name has been changed
