Sports betting companies face a new hit if a federal independent MP convinces parliament to ban prolific gambling ads on TV.
Zoe Daniel argues interventions to restrict gambling ads during sporting broadcasts only pushed the commercials into other programming, including shows targeting children.
"With gambling ads at saturation levels, and invading the minds of our young people in evermore insidious ways, to the extent that multis are now of more interest than the games themselves, we must act," the Melbourne-based MP told parliament on Monday as she introduced a private bill to ban broadcast gambling ads.
The bill sought to replicate the approach taken to banning tobacco advertising in 1976.
"After all, gambling is also a public health issue," Ms Daniel said, arguing a total ban was needed to stop the harm gambling was causing.
"We must end gambling ads and properly tax the gambling industry's betting profits to offset potential revenue loss to sport."
However, Ms Daniel's push is unlikely to get immediate support from the government as it waits on the findings of a report on gambling ads.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has committed a future coalition government to banning sports betting ads during sports broadcasts an hour each side of a game.
However, Ms Daniel said the measure won't work.
"Recent policy interventions to restrict the timing and proximity of gambling ads around broadcast sport has only pushed gambling into other programming."
