Kudos to The Sydney Morning Herald for its summer campaign “Pokies: state of addiction” . It’s dragged a necessary debate out into the open and exposed the dirty tactics long used by the pokies lobby to ensure it can continue sliding its long hand deep into people’s pockets.
But before we get too dewy-eyed, let’s talk about the media’s own growing gambling addiction: online sports betting — rapidly replacing the rattling slots of the pokies with the silent lure of a digital app.
The SMH campaigners don’t need to look far to find 948 examples of the rising danger. That’s the average number of gambling ads on free-to-air television every day, which reveals just how implicated the media is in Australia’s world record per capita gambling losses.
It’s an addictive trap. Thanks to a 2008 High Court decision that found it unconstitutional to prohibit interstate operations, it’s now a sure bet to find sports betting spread across all the traditional media — spanning free-to-air broadcasters, printed newspapers and commercial radio.
Just as pokies made zombies out of the pubs and clubs, eating out their brains to turn hospitality into gambling’s most enthusiastic advocates, the rising online sports betting industry is pulling off the same trick with commercial mass media.
The shocking 948 number points to evidence of growing collaboration. Based on Nielsen data, the Victorian Responsible Gaming Foundation (VRGF) found that daily ads were part of a gambling industry advertising spend of $287.2 million in Australia in 2021. Expect 2022’s numbers — and 2023’s — to be considerably up again.
Sure, there are other advertisers — the free-to-air stations reckon they banked $4.1 billion across 2021 — but gambling ads are among the few that are surging. Pretty soon, it will be too late for the broadcasters to go cold turkey.
It’s more than the dollars: sports rights are critical elements of broadcasters’ strategy for capturing a young generation of watchers. It turns out it’s the exact same audience the bookmakers are after.
In just about all sports broadcasts now — free-to-air, Foxtel cable, streaming — the sports betting industry has inveigled itself deep into the medium: such as via advertisements, of course, but also advertorial segments featuring “experts” discussing odds and occasionally engaging in friendly banter.
There are restrictions on gambling while play is taking place (other than incidental in-stadium advertising) and on odds during breaks, such as during half-time or, if it’s earlier than 8.30pm, within five minutes of play starting and ending. Despite the restraints, the ads are hitting their target: the VRGF report found “young men aged 18–24 years make up almost a fifth of sports bettors in Victoria”.
Sports betting is also critical to keep print alive, delivering something the medium has always struggled to find: a reliable advertising stream for the sports section, plus full-colour wrap-arounds to promote the most bettable of sporting events.
The real value for mastheads — and for sports betting in print — lies in the form guide: 20 pages out of 160 in this past Saturday’s Daily Telegraph, for example. Oh, plus the one-page advertorial for Betr, part-owned by News Corp.
Governments and regulators are struggling to respond. Last year, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found breaches of commercial television’s code of practice in gambling advertising both for the Nine network (over its broadcast of the 2021 NRL grand final) and Seven (over the Tokyo Olympics). In both cases, ACMA even issued (gasp!) enforceable undertakings requiring the networks to train staff and improve processes. That’ll fix things.
Meanwhile, from April, the federal government is toughening the anodyne “gamble responsibly” tag on betting ads, replacing the two-word caution with seven more explicit rotating messages (like “Chances are you’re about to lose” or “You win some. You lose more”) and a helpline contact.
It’s “nudge theory”, where behavioural economics meets light-touch policymaking in the hope that positive cues and suggestions can break through resistance to otherwise complex personal decisions and actions. Here it’s the best of both worlds: the government looks like it’s doing something without actually taking the risk of getting in between big media and a pile of advertising money.
The millions of dollars’ in ads in traditional media are just part of the bookmakers’ spend. Like most advertisers, they’re putting most of their money where they and their potential punters are: online.
Traditional media — like community clubs and pokies — has something more to offer sports betting: institutional credibility. But should the media be so eager to sell? Or should governments save media from itself and ban sports betting ads altogether?
Yet again, Australia is being shafted by He Who Must Not Be Named…………………………..
……..he was fanatically opposed to Sports Betting while it was illegal in America.
Amazingly, he had an epiphany as soon as it was legalized, to the extent of buying half of a new betting venture.
It appears that His new venture inherited the “Don’t Bother About Regulation” gene from it’s parent, as the company in question quite openly acknowledged in an interview with an ABC journalist, that their Client List (any bookmakers crown jewels) was composed of data STOLEN BY IT”S STAFF FROM PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS.
In my estimation, that makes them guilty of numerous felonies……
Knowingly dealing in stolen goods (they openly acknowledged they knew where the data came from)
Accessory after the fact to theft.
Assorted breaches of the Privacy Act (the data stolen comprised punters personal details, contact details etc).
Despite being alerted directly to these breaches of the Law, so far no discernible action has occurred by the NT regulator (who were also invited to alert the NT Police)
There were thousands of individual breaches, each of which attracts a custodial sentence and many thousands of dollars in fines.
So I can only presume that they consider He Who Must Not Be Named above the Law.
Sounds like another case of that creeping disease, Constructive Corruption………………………………
In case you’re interested, here’s the original article:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-22/news-corp-betr-fined-targeting-self-excluded-gambler/101800520
The ABC have also been advised (they got the story……. but missed THE STORY) but also appear to have tossed it in the too hard basket………………..
Strangely enough, none of this ever got a mention in the HWMNBN media……………………………
…….even though they will proudly tell you they have absolute editorial independence.
Sadly, when advised the Nine Group also failed to evince the slightest interest………….
(Probably looking to take a slice themselves)
And it’s not just young men who are grist to the gambling mill. With the betting companies offering odds on televised cricket played by children, as we learned last week, Philip Adams’ memorable description of “corporate paedophilia” comes to mind.
Just another failure of the education syllabus.
The mathematics behind all commercially run gambling should be taught in high school Maths classes. Children then would learn at an early age that it is impossible to win in the long run and that gambling is a waste of their money.
I find it hilarious that the big advertising push from ALL sports betting companies is on “Multis” because of their “Better Odds”………………………………..
………..the ACTUAL odds of a Multi paying out are worse than winning the lottery – far, far worse.
The punter only has to wonder WHY the odds are “Better” to see the scam.
(Online sports betting returns on “Multis” are 25%+…….. on an individual horse race it’s 5-6%. Guess why they are pushing it so hard.)
An excellent idea. Educational on several fronts.
Not another “This should be taught in schools!” solution. Probability is taught in schools. That doesn’t mean all vulnerable people absorb and recall those lessons when tempted years later to win some money.
For a mass of information on these issues see the submissions page of the current parliamentary inquiry. Lots of informed submissions from academics and people of lived experience. A number of Teals also contributed, Over 130 submissions currently and still taking them. Lots of subs call for a total advertising ban but there are other important proposals as well. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Social_Policy_and_Legal_Affairs/Onlinegamblingimpacts/Submissions
Too right.
Betting on animals racing each other is “gambling” too – as is gambling on football and other sports : how much does all that advertising for those gambling agencies bring in?.