Watch Out! Don't Step On The Government's New 'AdStop' Regime!

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

The government's pathetic gambling reforms look set to pass through Parliament this week and become law after a deal was struck with the Coalition today.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a deal which includes guarantees surrounding the Coalition's support for the NDIS overhaul and the removal of the so-called "widow's tax" from the May Budget.

The legislation creates the new 'AdStop' regime, where Australians will be able to opt out of receiving online gambling advertising. Betting companies will be forced to pay for the implementation of the scheme through an industry levy, with the whole thing to be reviewed after three years.

The agreement between Albanese and Taylor does little to placate genuine concerns from the community about the way gambling companies target vulnerable punters, particularly through relentless advertising, bonus offers and inducements designed to keep people betting.

And while the legislation does force these bloodsuckers to pay for their own wet noodle programme, it stops well short of the comprehensive ban on gambling advertising recommended by the bipartisan Peta Murphy inquiry in 2023.

There are also tighter restrictions around live sport. Gambling ads won't be allowed for 15 minutes before a game, while the existing three-ad-per-hour limit will begin earlier in the day. Importantly, the same rules will apply to online streaming services as they do to television, after earlier plans to give some streaming platforms greater freedom were dumped. Albo is just pissing in his own mouth at this point.

The reforms will also phase out gambling advertising on stadiums and sporting jerseys, ban sports stars from promoting wagering companies and tighten restrictions on radio advertising around school pick-up times.

But the government has stopped short of banning inducements altogether.

Instead, bookmakers will have to wait 2 weeks after someone opens an account before they can start offering them bonus bets and other inducements. Pointless. People coming off the BetStop self-exclusion register will face a 90-day waiting period before they can be targeted with offers. Why not just ban them forever. Gambling companies will also be required to look for signs that a customer is at risk and avoid offering inducements to those people. But it's up to them so you might as well just piss in your own mouth.

More sanctimonious wank. Instead of banning the practice outright, the government has constructed another layer of rules around an industry whose entire business model depends on people losing money.

Yes, you can't turn the lights off overnight and make the NRL and AFL suffer in their jocks. But they need to be weaned off this shit. Australians lose billions of dollars every year through wagering, and a significant amount of the money generated by major gambling companies ultimately flows to their owners and shareholders.

It's one thing to argue that sports betting is now embedded in the economics of professional sport. It's another to watch billions of dollars disappear from the bank accounts of ordinary Australians every year and shrug because broadcasters, sporting codes and bookmakers have become dependent on it.

It's just not good enough, and this weird kowtowing is plainly unAustralian.

More to come.