The fight to end gambling harm
Image courtesy of the Alliance for Gambling Reform
After more than a thousand days of silence, the Australian Government has finally responded to calls for gambling reform, but the fight is far from over. Here’s where the campaign stands, and why the next few months matter.
Australians lose $32 billion on gambling each year, the largest per capita losses of any country in the world. The harm is staggering — and entirely predictable. It is the result of decades of weak regulation, aggressive marketing and an industry that has spent millions cultivating political influence to protect its commercial interests.
Changing this situation requires sustained, well-resourced advocacy, which is exactly what the Alliance for Gambling Reform — a Reichstein Foundation grant partner since 2015 — has been doing.
A decade of pressure
For more than a decade, the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR) has worked to shift the policy landscape: campaigning to end gambling advertising, advocating for a cashless gambling card, and playing a critical role in initiating and informing the Federal Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Gambling. That inquiry, led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, delivered 31 far-reaching recommendations in 2023, including a phased, comprehensive ban on all gambling advertising across broadcast and online media.
What followed was a dispiriting wait. For more than a thousand days, the Australian Government failed to formally respond to the Murphy Report. While it’s had every reason to act, it’s also had powerful incentives to delay.
Gaming the system
Research published earlier this year by our grant partner the Australian Democracy Network reveals the extent of the gambling industry’s political influence. Analysis of Australian Electoral Commission data shows that gambling companies donated more than $6 million to Labor and the Coalition over the past decade — split almost exactly down the middle.
As Christian Slattery, Senior Campaigner at the Australian Democracy Network, explains in a recent opinion piece: “The pattern is bipartisan and strategic — these companies hedge their bets. Donations tend to spike around federal elections and periods of regulatory debate, precisely when political access is most valuable.”
“Of course, none of this proves that donations ‘buy’ policy outcomes or are evidence of corruption. That claim is a convenient straw man, easily dismissed by politicians and industry alike. Influence rarely works so crudely. Donations instead sit alongside lobbying, relationship-building and the revolving door between politics and industry as part of a broader corporate influence strategy. They help secure meetings, maintain relationships, and ensure commercial interests are heard behind closed doors. Over time, this shapes which voices and issues are prioritised.”
A response — but far from enough
Earlier this month, the Prime Minister finally announced a reform package, including a ban on gambling advertising on sports jerseys and in stadiums, and a ban on gambling ads online for sites that do not offer users the opportunity to opt out.
Importantly, he also acknowledged that Australia needs to do more to stop children being exposed to gambling ads and to break the nexus between betting and sport — a significant departure from the position held by Australian governments of both political persuasions for the past 30 years.
These steps and this acknowledgement are welcome, but they fall short of what the evidence demands and what the Murphy Report recommends. Australians will still see three gambling ads an hour. There remains no ban on inducements — the free bets worth thousands of dollars routinely sent to people who have tried to stop gambling. There is no commitment to create a national gambling regulator. And the package fails to recognise gambling for what it is: a public health issue.
The proposed reforms are not yet law. There is still a critical opportunity to strengthen them before they pass through Parliament. AGR and its partners are working tirelessly to ensure every federal MP understands what is needed and what is at stake. Advocacy of this kind — sustained, strategic and rooted in community — is hard work, but it’s the kind of advocacy that will create lasting change.
