Australian gambling service providers spent AU$238.63 million ($151.8 million) on TV, radio, and online advertising during a one-year period, with the lion share still going for TV ads.
The findings were published in a report dubbed ‘Gambling advertising in Australia: placement and spending’ and carried out by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The research used Nielsen Ad intel data and provides a snapshot of the volume and spend on gambling advertising in Australia between May 2022 and April 2023.
ACMA pointed out that around 73 percent of Australian adults gambled at least once in the 12 months from July 2021 to July 2022.
The same report highlighted the importance of the report following the launch of an inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on problem gamblers by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs last year.
The australian parliamentary inquiry called for banning online gambling advertisements within three years, citing serious harm caused by an inescapable “torrent” that is “grooming children”.
The research focused on the sources of advertising spending, the nature of the services being advertised and the quantity, repetition and concentration of advertising for specific gambling products and services (including differences, if any, between regional and metropolitan (metro) commercial television markets).
According to the report data, over 1 million gambling ads aired on free-to-air TV (metro and regional) and metro radio, with about half being from gambling providers offering online gambling services.
Most products advertised included online gambling services lotteries, raffles and instant lotteries; lottos; on-premise gambling; and horse racing, harness racing and greyhound racing events.
Some 256,200 spots of the total gambling ads on metro free-to-air TV and 196,400 spots for regional free-to-air TV were by online gambling providers.
‘Compared with all gambling advertisers, online gambling providers spent the most on free-to-air TV, metro radio and online (including social media) advertising by far, with 64 percent of the total,’ the report cited.
Of the total AU$238.63 million ($151.8 million) spent on advertising, a large share of it, 56 percent or AU$133 million ($84.6 million)—was spent in metro TV markets, followed by social media with 15 percent, and regional TV markets with 12 percent.
