With a refreshed government in place, experts are calling for action on Australia’s rampant gambling issues. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has recently secured a second term in office, making him the first Australian prime minister to win a re-election in two decades.
Albanese will now start his second term with at least 87 seats in the 150-seat lower house.
In an article originally published at The Conversation, Charles Livingstone, an Associate Professor at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, and Angela Rintoul, Principal Research Fellow in Gambling and Suicide at The University of Melbourne, state that “recent neglect of this pressing problem has allowed Australia to maintain its status as the world’s biggest gambling losers, primarily due to the overwhelming presence of gambling operators and their products”.
According to the researchers, poker machines, particularly prevalent in New South Wales, contribute significantly to the issue, with losses totaling “$15.8 billion annually”.
In contrast, “Western Australia, which restricts poker machines, experiences the lowest gambling harms”. The online betting sector is also booming, generating “an additional $8.4 billion”.
Livingstone and Rintoul highlight that gambling has severe consequences, including “relationship breakdowns, financial loss, and increased crime rates, as well as links to mental health issues and suicide”.
To address these challenges, experts recommend establishing “a national gambling regulator to standardize practices across states and prevent the Northern Territory from becoming the default regulator”.
They also suggest implementing “a national pre-commitment scheme, which has been effective in Europe for managing poker machine usage, although the powerful pokie lobby has hindered its progress”.
Additionally, limiting accessibility to poker machines by “closing venues after midnight could help reduce gambling-related harm”. Regulating political access is essential; “strengthening rules around hospitality and gifts from gambling operators would mitigate undue influence on politicians”.
Furthermore, there is a call to “ban online gambling ads, which a majority of Australians support, aligning with existing restrictions on other gambling forms”. Lastly, enhancing funding for independent research is crucial for effectively understanding and addressing gambling harm.
The researchers conclude that the Albanese government has the “political capital” to tackle these issues head-on and that implementing these “evidence-based strategies” could significantly reduce gambling-related harm by helping “people with existing problems, and stop many more from ending up in trouble”.
