"All addictions are fundamentally similar"
For 22 years, I have worked in the alcohol and other drug sector. During that time, I have sat with people and families living with the consequences of addiction. I have seen the damage it can cause to health, relationships, finances, housing, employment and hope.
That experience has left me with a firm belief: all addictions are fundamentally similar.
Whether the addictive behaviour involves alcohol, illicit drugs or gambling, many of the underlying forces are the same. Addiction exploits vulnerability, changes behaviour and gradually pushes aside the things a person values most. Different addictions also commonly occur together, compounding their effects and making recovery more difficult.
Addiction is one of the most harmful forces in our community, and that is because life is tough and often tainted with pain and despair. Much of gambling in Australia is legal and does not involve criminal deals or syringes: but this makes its impact no less real. It still preys, among others, on survivors of terrible harms and losses whose pain is temporarily abated by the hypnotic beeping and pinging of the machines, or by the oblivion of the drug.
Years ago, my uncle Neil Lawrence created the “Ka-Ching! Pokie Nation” documentary and campaign. It was a watershed moment in Australians’ understanding of gambling. The campaign pulled back the curtain and showed us how carefully the gambling industry was designing its products, environments and messages to manipulate people.
Australians began to see that gambling harm was not simply the result of individuals making bad choices. Vast resources, sophisticated psychological techniques and relentless marketing were being used to shape those choices.
Today, that manipulation follows us everywhere.
Eleven years after Ka-Ching! Pokie Nation, gambling harm remains pervasive. Meanwhile, the industry’s reach has expanded. The machine is no longer only at the pub or club. It is in your pocket, or more likely in your hand, staring back at you. Ka-ching!
Children are exposed to gambling brands and betting language long before they are legally able to place a bet. They are being taught to connect gambling with sport, excitement, friendship and success.
If a politician suggested we start advertising cigarettes again (“What’s the harm of a few puffs on a Saturday night, plus it pays for all the sporting facilities!”) you would think they were joking.
The fact that Australia has taken this long to protect people, particularly children, from manipulation through gambling advertising is shocking.
Warnings and slogans are not enough. Voluntary industry codes are not enough. Small restrictions that simply move advertisements from one time slot or platform to another are not enough.
The path forward is already clear. In 2023, a parliamentary inquiry recommended a phased, comprehensive ban on online gambling advertising and sponsorship, to be implemented over three years. The inquiry heard extensive evidence about gambling harm and the exposure of children and young people to gambling promotion. The Federal Government does not need another inquiry. It needs to act on the evidence and recommendations already before it.
The current Federal Government has an opportunity, and a responsibility, to act. In 2012 a former Labor Prime Minister blinked when a moment like this was in front of them to restrict the gambling industry and reduce harm. 14 years wasted. It must not happen again. Whatever the eventual reform is, we have to scrutinise whether or not it goes far enough.
Australia needs strong, clear and binding legislation that comprehensively limits, and ultimately eradicates, gambling advertising. The rules must cover television, radio, sport, streaming services, social media, online platforms, sponsorships and direct marketing. They must be enforceable, with meaningful consequences for companies that breach them.
And yes, governments and sporting and media organisations may face financial consequences. But there will be cost avoidance too, and quite possibly overwhelming cost avoidance. I’d love a responsible statutory body to monitor and evaluate the change, to see if the loss of income is balanced by a reduction in suicides and attempted suicides, a reduction in defaulted mortgages, and a reduction of people living in poverty, suffering from mental illness and hiding their shame with drugs. Our good friends at https://www.sharc.org.au/ have done a lot of work towards viewing gambling addiction in the same broad frame as substance use, both in terms of harms and the benefits of progress.
Financial inconvenience cannot outweigh the health and safety of the Australian community. That’s the kind of thing that we simply must fight every day.
People experiencing gambling addiction deserve compassion and effective support. But prevention matters too. We cannot tell individuals to take responsibility while allowing an immensely profitable industry to spend millions of dollars influencing their behaviour and normalising gambling for their children.
This is not about banning sport, entertainment or personal choice. It is about limiting the power of corporations to manufacture harmful behaviour and recruit the next generation of customers.
After 22 years in the addiction sector, I know that delay has consequences. Every day without meaningful reform brings more exposure, more harm and more families left to deal with the aftermath.
The Federal Government must act decisively. Australians, and especially Australian children, deserve protection that is strong and binding, even if it's decades overdue.
