There is absolutely no question that sports betting advertising has become prevalent and more noticeable.
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Australian punters lost almost $23 billion past year, with a 30 per cent growth in sports betting helping to drive a continued rise in annual gambling losses.
Interviewed by radio news station 3AW, Tripp pointed out that the sports betting industry is small to take the brunt of the blame on the spike of gambling losses in Australia.
They have shown pokies to be the single biggest source of gambling losses, at almost $12 billion.
The Victoria (Australia) state government has begun consultations on potential restrictions to gambling services advertising.
‘Sports betting were the fastest-growing sector of gambling and the reason Australians lost more than 625 million dollars in 2014 and 2015, which was 30 per cent over the previous years.
Sports betting advertisements could be outlawed on public transport and in areas close to schools in the Australian state of Victoria.
‘More than half of the money was squandered at poker machines, which amounted to 8.8 billion dollars and nearly half of those losses were attributed to “problem gamblers”.
There are also renewed calls from Senator Nick Xenophon, the Greens and Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie for poker machine reform.
“We need to a little bit careful what we wish for”.
Dr Charles Livingston, a gambling researcher at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, said the rate of growth from sports betting had doubled from the previous few years.
“[That is] if any of them really cared about the issue”, he said.
In NSW, per person losses were higher at $1517.
Under guidelines enforced by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR), the state has been one of the more relaxed Australian authorities for gambling operators.
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But he said that pokie machines remained the worst offender and there needed to be a serious look at what type of measures could reduce their harmful impact. The ban says Marlene Kairouz, the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation will include places that can not be avoided on a day-to-day basis with public transportation. She said the government had invested $150 million over four years to support problem gambling services.
