If you give gambling companies an inch they’ll take a mile, making a ‘partial’ ban on online gambling ads a ‘health policy failure’, says the AMA.
Allowing the gambling industry any wiggle room is naive, say doctors amid chatter that the federal government was considering a “partial” ban on online gambling ads.
Last June, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs tabled the report from its inquiry into online gambling, aptly titled “You win some, you lose more”.
The report’s 31 recommendations applied a public health lens to online gambling and aimed to reduce harm to Australians, who currently lose $25 billion a year to gambling – the largest per capita gambling loss in the world.
One of the independent inquiry’s recommendations was a blanket online gambling ad ban: an iterative, three-year process.
In the lead up to the long-awaited federal response to the report, the government has been met with scruitiny for meeting with betting companies, with rumours that it was considering a “partial” ban, permitting ads at particular times on some platforms.
Speaking to The Medical Republic, RACGP’s addiction medicine special interest group chair Dr Hester Wilson said partial bans were “unlikely” to make a significant difference, given the “ubiquitous” nature of online gambling.
“Companies that make money out of [gambling] are so conflicted, we can’t allow them to manage themselves or think that a partial ban will make a difference,” Dr Wilson told TMR.
“It’s like the scorpion and the frog crossing the river.”
In the famous fable, the frog is stung by the scorpion halfway across the river, despite the scorpion’s promises to the contrary.
“’I’m a scorpion, that’s just what we do’,” recounted Dr Wilson.
“It’s naive to think that it would be any different [for gambling companies].”
Dr Wilson called on the government to “just take the committee’s recommendations and do something that’s going to make a difference”.
The AMA also joined in calling on the federal government to implement a complete ban on online gambling ads within three years, as per the inquiry’s recommendation to avoid a “public health policy failure”.
“Anything less than a comprehensive ban on online gambling advertising will do nothing to protect Australians falling into the grips of gambling addiction,” said AMA president Professor Steve Robson.
“If you give these betting companies any kind of wriggle room with advertisements, they will exploit it.
“We saw this with the vaping industry, and similar scenes are now playing out with gambling.”
Dr Wilson said the health impacts of gambling were “real” and pervasive.
“One in seven people will experience gambling harms from their own gambling, and six people in [each gambler’s’] life with be affected by that gambling,” she said.
Patients and family members affected by gambling often presented in general practice with other issues – stress, sleep issues, high blood pressure – added Dr Wilson.
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But for GPs, it’s about delving deeper.
“The statement that I always make to my patients is, ‘I’m concerned for your health and your wellbeing. We know that habits or lifestyle choices that we make can affect that. Is it okay if I ask you [about them]?’” said Dr Wilson.
“Then I’ll ask them about their exercise, nutrition, weight, smoking, alcohol use, other drug use [and] gambling.”
Free government-funded treatment services for gambling disorders, like NSW’s GambleAware, are now available in all jurisdictions across the nation.
Dr Wilson said GPs’ role in helping patients to seek help – be that GP support or referral to services – was “incredibly important”.
Despite being recognised internationally as a mental health disorder – in the DSM-5 and the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases – one of the struggles with treating gambling and gaming disorders is that, unlike opioid dependency, there are no pharmacological treatments.
“It’s psychosocial, it’s counseling, it’s supporting people to begin to change,” said Dr Wilson.
