The ban on live sports betting is to be applauded. But we never should have let it get this far
So now we’re officially in autumn, and you know what that means? No, not trees changing colours and soups for lunch. Footy season is again about to descend upon us, of course.
Soon newspapers, radio and television will be full of details of strategy and game-plan analyses. Descriptors such as hero, legend and tragedy will become a common feature of the sports reports and weekends will see millions of Australians glued to their screens as though their entire happiness depended on that ball crossing that try line or sailing through those goal posts.
Our household is no exception. I’m fully expecting conversations about line-ups, lineouts and leadership ladders. (Well, “conversations” is being a bit generous as it implies equal participation from all concerned, and, in reality, I still can’t work out the offside rule. But I do love the haka – does that count?)
But while my enthusiasm for football would never see me labelled a die-hard fan, I do think it’s a great thing for people generally – to follow a team, to watch the games, to get excited by the wins and share the disappointments of the losses.
Naturally it’s not as healthy as playing sport yourself but if you’re talking quality of life, sense of identity, feeling of community, then following football in Australia ticks a lot of boxes.
So that’s why the insidious takeover of the game by gambling organisations that seems to have occurred over the last few years has been absolutely appalling.
Last year, you could not watch any game without seeing or hearing stats on what the odds were and what the returns would be on the teams winning or scoring the first try or goal. Or getting an ad on how to place a bet online at any stage in the game. Or seeing a gambling company’s sponsorship logo.
How did this happen? We banned cigarette advertising. We banned alcohol advertising in sport. Why then was gambling allowed to develop such a stranglehold on advertising to this very large, very wide-reaching section of the community? Of course, it was the money. Big money. NRL has a multimillion-dollar deal with Sportsbet, and similarly AFL is getting significant funding from Crownbet.
The Ladbrokes and the Tom Waterhouses of this world are not stupid. I am sure if there is one thing they do know about, it is return on investment. The football audience they have been pitching to would be representing plenty of potential new business, especially the children, and that pathetic “gamble responsibly” admonishment at the end of each ad fools no one.
Fortunately, other, much more influential people shared this concern. Ex-senator Nick Xenophon was particularly vocal in his demands to curb gambling in Australia, mainly targeting pokies – the money-hole of choice for most problem gamblers – but also attacking what is commonly known as sports betting.
Australian Gambling Statistics showed that in the 12 months to 2016 Australian lost over $23.6 billion in gambling.1 Per capita that’s the highest of any country in the developed world!
And while most of that was in avenues such as Lotto and poker machines, the losses from sports betting grew the most of any form of gambling. Australians lost $921 million on sports betting in 2016, up 13% on the previous year.
Fortunately, the powers-that-be exercised their social responsibility and passed legislation last May that sees, from the end of this month, (30 March 2018) a ban on any gambling advertising in live sporting coverage aired between 5am and 8.30pm.
Can you believe it? We will actually get to watch a game without being constantly bombarded about how we can “responsibly” throw our money away. Our children will grow up without thinking placing a bet on the footy is just part of ritual of enjoying the game with mates.
As you can imagine there have been protests. Apparently, pay-TV organisations have already put in a proposal for amendments to the law, seeking an exemption for “low audience-share channels”. And a number of commentators have been saying that the legislation has many loopholes that will be exploited by gambling organisations, such as allowing team and event sponsorship.
But it is a start and, provided it actually gets implemented on the proposed date, it should be applauded.
Nobody “needs” to gamble. Most of us love a flutter at the Melbourne Cup, or during a day at the races, but the infiltration of gambling advertising into Australian sport, in particular the football codes, an area that has often been described as a national obsession (except in Victoria, where it is a religion) should never have been allowed.
In football if a team wins, thousands and thousands of fans are ecstatic, they are simply thrilled with the pure joy of success. Think of those grand finals such as South Sydney’s NRL win in 2014 or the Western Bulldog’s AFL victory in 2016. I’ll wager (excuse the pun) very few, if any, of those fans were celebrating because they had money riding on the result.
There is something quite altruistic about the classic Australian footy fan’s enthusiasm for their team and their sport. I’m sure there have always been footy tipping competitions and people probably have always bet on games, but bringing the betting component up front and centre risked losing some of the best aspects of the sport and its ability to enrich the lives of so many Australian families.
This ban has to be a good thing.
Reference:
1. http://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/products/reports/aus-gambling-stats/
