Illegal betting market costing Australian racing industry $135 million a year

RWA chief executive Kai Cantwell said it was crucial that the online market, which it lobbies for, remains in a competitive position against unlicensed and illegal offshore operators. That would centralise all illegal gambling domains, mirror sites, and related app identifiers in one database managed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. It also highlights the limited legal recourse players had to deal with withheld winnings, frozen accounts of fraud, and shows the increased risk of money laundering and terrorism funding activity. The other major impact is on integrity, because there is no local oversight of betting transactions in these overseas markets.

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This will go a long way to preventing harm from the two most risky and widespread forms of gambling. For those who choose to gamble, mandatory pre-commitment with maximum loss limits would ensure they no longer lose more than they can afford. The federal government should establish a national pre-commitment system for online gambling, and state governments should roll out state-wide pre-commitment for pokies. In parallel, the federal government should investigate the feasibility of a universal system across all gambling environments.

Financial stress, family tension, and loneliness drive vulnerable Australians to gamble more, often those already experiencing the greatest hardship. It’s been 845 days since Peta Murphy’s groundbreaking report gave us a roadmap for change. “Unlike licensed operators, who use data to identify and support at-risk customers, illegal sites use it to target vulnerable Australians and minors with high-risk offers and exaggerated bonuses.

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As we share our own knowledge practices within the University, may we pay respect to the deep knowledge embedded within the Aboriginal community and recognise their ownership of Country. “We go on football apps and things like that and the first thing that they see when they try and watch a replay of the game is gambling ads,” he said. Among those identified as regular monthly gamblers, 7.7 per cent were considered high risk. Gambling harm included stress, borrowing money, skipping meals or selling things to fund gambling. Lead author Dr Gabriel Tillman said the proportion of people surveyed who experienced gambling-related harm was equivalent to around 3 million Australians.

But that shouldn’t mean delaying casino games state-based reform efforts, or waiting for laggards. The time is right for federal, state, and territory governments to come together to implement a coordinated reform package. Taking action together is likely to be the most effective way to take on the vested interests.

It’s increasingly easy for people to make gambling a habit, a potentially bad habit, when they have it at their fingertips 24/7 through an app. The rising toll of Australia’s gambling addicts, mostly young men from and individuals living in certain communities, continues to grow. It called for a response at intergovernmental, national, and regional government levels. Children and young adults are becoming the new norm as gambling addicts who are routinely exposed to unprecedented levels of gambling product advertising. When we do this without causing harm to ourselves or others, we call this ‘gambling in moderation’. The report found Queensland reported the highest prevalence of gambling, at 70.2 per cent, followed by Western Australia at 69.6 per cent, and South Australia at 67.9 per cent.

“Ensuring Australia’s onshore market stays competitive is essential, because if people can’t find the products or prices they want here, they don’t stop gambling, they just go offshore,” he said. The report estimated that one in five bets on sport in Australia is happening via offshore betting. However, while it is illegal to offer these services, Australian customers can access what the report calls “a rapidly growing and increasingly sophisticated illegal offshore market” via third-party VPNs and the like. It’s so entrenched in our Australian psyche that roughly 73 per cent of Australians spend money on one or more gambling products each year, and we lose the most on gambling per capita in the world – more than $25 billion. Once the domain of men, gambling, and particularly sports gambling, is “a growing worldwide threat,” according to a new report from international medical journal The Lancet. It’s so entrenched in our Australian psyche that roughly 73 percent of Australians spend money on one or more gambling products every year, and we lose the most on gambling per capita in the world – more than $25 billion annually.

• “It’s a pathetic display of gutlessness from the Labor government who should do better and are letting Australian families down.
• Mandatory pre-commitment with upper limits on losses could provide that safety net (see Chapter 3).
• The report says that the illegal sector now represents 36 per cent of Australia’s gambling market, with more than $2.7 billion in lost taxes and product fees expected over the next five years.
• It called for a response at intergovernmental, national, and regional government levels.
• The delayed response has left big gaps in consumer protection, and demonstrates once again how politically challenging it is to achieve good policy in this space.

They can make their presence known locally, with pokies providers in almost every electorate, stoke community fears about loss of jobs and services (Chapter 4), and they exert financial influence too. Chapter 2 shows that governments have failed to take the necessary steps to prevent gambling harm, mainly because of the political risks of taking on the industry and its allies. It has also said it wanted to keep online advertising, including on social media and streaming services, but it would only be to logged-in, age-verified accounts so it doesn’t target kids, and there would be an opt-out mechanism. It has also said it wanted to keep online advertising, including on social media and streaming services, but it would only be to logged-in, age-verified accounts so it doesn’t target kids, and there would be an opt-out mechanism.

Micro bets, such as whether a cricket bowler will bowl a no ball in a particular over are particularly prone to corruption or spot fixing. Through public discourse and advertising, gambling has become intrinsically linked to our everyday activities, and in particular the Aussie notion of mateship. We are encouraged to gamble with our friends, gamble while consuming alcohol to make it more fun, gamble in social venues, while eating, and on our mobile devices. We are encouraged to share our betting wins, near wins, and losses with friends and loved ones. We laugh, cry, yell, and cheer for our team/horse, talk about sporting events in terms of betting odds, and impress ourselves and others with our betting skills and knowledge of the form/ event.