{"id":16621,"date":"2021-04-06T14:56:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T14:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=16621"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:35:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:35:56","slug":"australia-group-relaunches-campaign-for-ban-on-sports-betting-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/australia-group-relaunches-campaign-for-ban-on-sports-betting-ads","title":{"rendered":"Australia: group relaunches campaign for ban on sports betting ads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Alliance for Gambling Reform has relaunched its campaign to end sports betting ads, claiming sports wagering was the fastest-growing form of gambling in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Australia.- The<strong> Alliance for Gambling Reform<\/strong>, a national advocacy organisation that works to prevent and minimize the harm from gambling, has<strong> relaunched a campaign calling for an end to sports betting advertising in Australia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group highlighted a report carried out by the\u00a0<strong>Australian Gambling Research Centre (AGRC)\u00a0<\/strong>that showed that almost\u00a0<strong>one in three participants in a survey of 2,000 opened a new online betting account<\/strong>\u00a0during the Covid-19 pandemic, and\u00a0<strong>one in 20 started gambling online.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reverend<strong> Tim Costello<\/strong>, chief advocate of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said: &#8220;When you stop and take notice of how many gambling ads you see on television, it\u2019s really disturbing. Sometimes<strong> more than half the ads you see in a commercial break are for gambling<\/strong>. That\u2019s not right.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Costello, <strong>sports wagering doubled in the five years to 2017\/18<\/strong> and annual losses now exceed AU$1bn (US$765.5m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Brent Jackson<\/strong>, chief executive of corporate bookmaker lobby group <strong>Responsible Wagering Australia<\/strong>, criticised Costello and <strong>claimed the issue was non-existent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jackson said: &#8220;While sports betting is growing in popularity,<strong> problem gambling rates continue to fall<\/strong>, and wagering advertising complaints are at all-time lows, comprising only 0.31 per cent of all advertising complaints.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/victorian-government-to-study-gambling-behaviour-during-covid-19\" target=\"_blank\">Victorian government is looking to examine how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on gambling behaviours<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sports betting: The fastest-growing form of gambling in Australia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to reports,<strong> bookmakers saw an enormous increase in market value<\/strong> during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Entain<\/strong>, the British sports betting and gambling company, saw an\u00a0<strong>$8bn\u00a0increase in value in the past year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Flutter Entertainment<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>increased in value by $30bn<\/strong>\u00a0during the pandemic, with a 59 per cent increase in Australian revenue last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report by the AGRC showed\u00a0that <strong>horseracing, sports betting, greyhound racing\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>lotto<\/strong>\u00a0were the<strong> preferred gambling activities <\/strong>in Australia both before and during Covid-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Alliance for Gambling Reform has relaunched its campaign to end sports betting ads, claiming sports wagering was the fastest-growing form of gambling in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":16622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Alliance for Gambling Reform has relaunched its campaign to ban sports betting advertising in Australia, citing rapid growth in sports wagering and increased online gambling during the pandemic. This initiative faces opposition from industry bodies like Responsible Wagering Australia, which argues problem gambling rates are declining. The debate highlights regulatory pressures on operators amidst significant market value increases for major players like Entain and Flutter Entertainment.","focusai_entities":"Alliance for Gambling Reform, Australian Gambling Research Centre (AGRC), Reverend Tim Costello, Responsible Wagering Australia, Brent Jackson, Entain, Flutter Entertainment","focusai_location":"Australia, Victoria","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.8), product_ux (0.7), marketing_crm (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Impact Analysis","query":"What is the projected GGR impact on Australian sports betting operators, specifically Entain and Flutter Entertainment, if a comprehensive advertising ban is implemented, considering their recent revenue growth and market share?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How might the Victorian government's examination of COVID-19 gambling behaviours influence the broader Australian regulatory compliance framework for online wagering, particularly regarding responsible gambling mandates and advertising controls?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,155],"tags":[23911,233,23935],"class_list":["post-16621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-sports-betting-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-sports-betting","tag-sportsbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16647,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16621\/revisions\/16647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}