Former gambling addict calls for advertising bans as federal government considers reforms
Micheal has gone through decades of addiction and heartbreak. The first thing was a bet on a horse race at the age of 17, bankruptcy declared at 21, faced relationship breakdowns and hit “rock bottom”.
“Straightaway I was pretty much hooked, I loved the excitement and the euphoria about it,” he said.
20 years was spent primarily on sports betting. Now at 45, he lives in regional Queensland and spends his time regularly at Gamblers Anonymous meetings.
He says he witnessed the industry change from betting at local sports clubs to betting with apps on the phone
“Sports betting was just too easy when the apps came along … whether it be rugby league, the AFL, or the Brownlow betting or golf, it’s 24/7,” Michael said.
Having this on phones increases acceptability and would make it harder to deal with the addiction.
“There’d be times I’d be up at two or three o’clock in the morning watching certain events halfway around the world, just hoping and praying that my bet would come in.”
Delays after inquiry
There was an inquiry in late June regarding online gambling harm. It was found that Australians spent the most in the world per capita on legal gambling, losing $25 billion a year. It recommended a phased ban on gambling advertisements in all states of Australia within three years. They warned that these advertisements were grooming children into gamblers. However, five months after report recommendations there was no implementation and the government is still “considering” its response. During the inquiry major sport codes claimed the gambling revenue was important to their funding. Aside from this the NRL and AFL acknowledged the concerns about the harm of gambling advertising. Alliance of Gambling chief advocate Tim Costello said there was “difficult politics”. He says the proposed reforms were not radical as other countries like Italy, Belgium and Spain have already banned gambling advertising.
“The challenges are the vested interests of the powerful, so they’re Seven, Nine and 10, the AFL, NRL, Foxtel and they’re all saying ‘but we now depend on the sports betting advertising’,” he said.
Sleepless nights, betting mania
Micheal believes these advertisements should be limited or banned.
“I just think it’s a shame because I still watch sport today … when I first gave up gambling I stayed off sports for a little bit but I do enjoy it,” he said.
He said that during his addiction he would forge his family member’s signatures, hurting people he cared about.
“It was manic, it was chaos because you’d have that many bets on,” he said.
Micheal wanted to increase awareness of services that help like Gamblers Anonymous. He said he was grateful for the support of his family and he was focused on making his parents proud.
“I’ve still got a long way to go, [I was] gambling for 20 years and I want 20 years free,” he said.
