{"id":22973,"date":"2021-09-24T12:24:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T15:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22973"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:21:36","slug":"australia-criticism-of-gambling-ads-ahead-of-afl-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/australia-criticism-of-gambling-ads-ahead-of-afl-grand-final","title":{"rendered":"Australia: criticism of gambling ads ahead of AFL Grand Final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some government MPs, athletes and AFL clubs have complained of gambling companies piling ads into pre-game coverage for Saturday&#8217;s AFL Grand Final in Perth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia.- Government MPs, athletes and AFL clubs have complained that after a prohibition on airing gambling advertising during or within five minutes of live sports broadcasts,\u00a0<strong>gambling companies have been stacking ads in pre-game coverage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Queensland MP Andrew Wallace<\/strong>, who is behind plans to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/australian-banks-support-credit-card-ban-on-online-gambling\">ban credit card spending on online gambling<\/a>, said more action is required. He called for gambling ads to eventually be restricted altogether like smoking ad.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said: &#8220;Kids seem to be just absolutely hammered with what the odds are on this or that and there seems to be an almost non-delineation between sport and gambling.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sam Bingley, North Melbourne&#8217;s chief commercial officer,<\/strong>\u00a0said: &#8220;I certainly think that in 10 or 15 or 20 years&#8217; time we may look back and be surprised that there ever was gambling advertising, in a similar way that we look back on cigarette advertising.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Calls to reduce gambling ads during sports coverage have been supported by\u00a0<strong>AFL players like Brodie Grundy and Darcy Moore<\/strong>\u00a0who questioned the extent of gambling advertisements, saying young AFL fans are working to separate the sport from the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David Attenborough,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/tabcorp-calls-for-tougher-restrictions-on-tv-gambling-ads\">Tabcorp<\/a>\u00a0chief executive, has also urged the government to\u00a0<strong>impose stricter limitations on gambling ads to protect children and teenagers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Attenborough said\u00a0<strong>the government should think about a further crackdown<\/strong>, especially around live games. According to WA Today, he suggested\u00a0<strong>further limitations on prime-time TV ads<\/strong>, excluding racing channels, would better protect vulnerable Australians. He suggested\u00a0<strong>Australia should replicate the UK model<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TV gambling ads remain one of the subjects of the most complaints received by regulators. Despite measures to reduce ads during live sport three years ago<strong>, the industry spent AU$271.3m on ads last year, up from AU$89.7m in 2011<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">ACMA raps Foxtel for breaching ad rules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/australia-acma-orders-blocking-of-5-offshore-gambling-platforms\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Australian Communications and Media Authority<\/a>&nbsp;(ACMA) has found&nbsp;<strong>Foxtel<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Cable Television&nbsp;<\/strong>guilty of breaching advertising rules for airing a&nbsp;<strong>betting commercial during half-time of an AFL match<\/strong>&nbsp;on Easter Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Foxtel self-reported the breach to ACMA after receiving complaints from viewers<\/strong>. It said the breach was caused by human error and that it has since provided employees with training on gambling advertising obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company has also introduced new control measures to ensure that gambling advertisements will not be mistakenly displayed during live sports events in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some government MPs, athletes and AFL clubs have complained of gambling companies piling ads into pre-game coverage for Saturday&#8217;s AFL Grand Final in Perth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Australian government MPs, AFL clubs, and athletes are intensifying calls for stricter limitations on gambling advertising, particularly around live sports broadcasts, citing concerns over youth exposure and the blurring of lines between sport and gambling. This comes as the industry's ad spend has significantly increased, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) recently sanctioned Foxtel for a breach of existing advertising rules during an AFL match.","focusai_entities":"Andrew Wallace, Sam Bingley, North Melbourne, Brodie Grundy, Darcy Moore, David Attenborough, Tabcorp, ACMA, Australian Communications and Media Authority, Foxtel Cable Television, AFL","focusai_location":"Australia, Perth, Queensland, UK","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.9), marketing_crm (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Impact","query":"What specific legislative or policy changes are most likely to be enacted in Australia following these intensified calls for gambling advertising restrictions, and what is the projected timeline for implementation?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy Shift","query":"How are major iGaming operators in Australia, particularly those with significant sports betting verticals, planning to recalibrate their customer acquisition and retention strategies in anticipation of potential widespread advertising bans?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[23911,233,23935],"class_list":["post-22973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-sports-betting","tag-sportsbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22973","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=22973"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22980,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22973\/revisions\/22980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}