Australia Urged To Ban Online Gambling Ads To Curb Growing Addiction 29
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Australia should phase out advertising for online gambling in three years, a parliamentary committee of inquiry recommended on Wednesday as it looked to limit the "havoc" it caused in one of the world's biggest betting market. The committee made 31 recommendations on how online gambling, which it said was changing the culture of sport, should be regulated and how Australians struggling with addiction should be supported. Australians outspend the citizens of every other country on online gambling, Peta Murphy, chair of the committee said in the report titled "You win some, you lose more."
"This is wreaking havoc in our communities," Murphy said. Murphy said online gambling companies advertise deliberately and strategically alongside sport, which has normalized it as fun and harmless and sociable activity. A generation of young Australians views gambling and sport as inextricably linked, Murphy said, adding that it was changing the culture of sport. "Australia would be diminished if sport was to be so captured by gambling revenue that providing an opportunity for betting came to be seen as its primary purpose," Murphy said.
A phased, comprehensive ban on all gambling advertising on all media, broadcast and online, that left no room for circumvention, was needed, the panel said. It recommended the ban be phased in over three years so sporting bodies and broadcasters had enough time to find alternative sources of advertising revenue. [...] Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would consider the recommendations. "We need to deal with online issues, we need to deal with social media issues, we need to deal with it comprehensively across the board," Albanese said on ABC Gold Coast radio.
"This is wreaking havoc in our communities," Murphy said. Murphy said online gambling companies advertise deliberately and strategically alongside sport, which has normalized it as fun and harmless and sociable activity. A generation of young Australians views gambling and sport as inextricably linked, Murphy said, adding that it was changing the culture of sport. "Australia would be diminished if sport was to be so captured by gambling revenue that providing an opportunity for betting came to be seen as its primary purpose," Murphy said.
A phased, comprehensive ban on all gambling advertising on all media, broadcast and online, that left no room for circumvention, was needed, the panel said. It recommended the ban be phased in over three years so sporting bodies and broadcasters had enough time to find alternative sources of advertising revenue. [...] Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would consider the recommendations. "We need to deal with online issues, we need to deal with social media issues, we need to deal with it comprehensively across the board," Albanese said on ABC Gold Coast radio.
Loot boxes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Does this include games with loot boxes? And Magic the card game?
No it won't. Australia specifically addressed loot boxes and such game mechanics in separate regulations as they didn't meet the legal definition of gambling. So any change to gambling laws would not affect them.
Only a few countries have defined loot boxes directly as gambling subject to the same laws as gambling, like Belgium.
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Not that it matters much. Most of the industry moved on to selling a Battle Pass (or their own name for the same concept) which employed some similar psychological tricks to manipulate people's behavior.
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How many times are you going to trot out that stupid argument?
It's like:
People are protesting the high price of life saving insulin, yet they still use the product from big pharma... interesting.
or calling someone who buys an epipen but doesn't like big pharma a hypocrite.
The argument iagainst big pharma sn't that medicine doesn't work.
Re: Drug companies (Score:2)
Why don't you bring it up to the Republicans? They're already okay with cancelling stuff via bans, books for example.
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They should be banned but not because any party benefits. No news organization will do hard, investigative reporting of the drug industry because they get ad dollars from big pharma.
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just because they thought they were going to get sick.
Over one million people in the USA died you worthless piece of shit.
Gambling: You Can't Fix Stupid. (Score:2)
But you can take their money.
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You don’t understand, nobody has responsibility for their actions. People are just guided to one bad decision after another by other people and or companies. Nobody has the power to say no. We need government to stop this!!!
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Nobody has the power to say no. We need government to stop this!!!
You are trying to be facetious but you're actually right. In marketing you're taught that the absolute wet dream of marketing is people who think they are immune from it, as they are precisely the people you can manipulate the most.
You don't have power. We have decades of psychology to prove that.
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No one is holding a gun to people's heads
Never been to the US, I take it?
On the other hand ... (Score:3)
Australia Urged To Ban Online Gambling Ads To Curb Growing Addiction
Being addicted to gambling ads is better than being addicted to gambling.
Everything this article said ... (Score:1)
And no one will agree that Porn is addictive and you should be able to stop whenever you want
MLB on TV is unwatchable because of the ads (Score:2)
The constant gambling ads are nauseating. It's whorish on the part pf MLB.
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Nah (Score:2)
Great Idea (Score:3)
On-line gambling also includes some very big companies who constantly advertise on TV, Radio and Internet. Their apps allow you to gamble on Footy (Australian Rules Football), Soccer, Rugby etc - Sport Betting to the Yanks. We also here have State Owned betting shops called the TAB - they are often in pubs etc
It's a very big business with international players behind them like Ladbrokes with many millions spent on their infrastructure. So the advertising spend is very, very big indeed
One thing the pollies are doing I can get behind. Gambling seriously destroys people and families yet it's being pushed like a drug. $310 million dollars a year in advertising is not chump change.
about time (Score:2)
It's a shanker on the prick of society.
Does this include stock trading? (Score:2)
Or "investing" in companies that trade stock?