online gambling increased 67 per cent<\/a><\/em><\/strong> in the first week of April in Australia, according to analytics group AlphaBeta.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt comes at a time where much of the country is under lockdown measures to help curb the spread of Coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A health doctor in addiction problems has called for the Australian government to act more on online gambling firms encouraging people to bet digitally during the period of lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ballarat Community Health doctor, Deb Greenslade, said: “We know these are very difficult times and uncertain times…People are home and looking for things to distract them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The last thing they need at this time is for online gambling companies to exploit them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If people are in isolation and taking stock of their lives, they may consider whether they want to go back to pokie machines at all. Now might be a good opportunity to get support.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most major sports have been cancelled or suspended, except many horse racing events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Novelty markets have been opening up including what colour tie Prime Minister Scott Morrison will wear each day during his press briefings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A leading health professional in Australia has warned of the dangers of online gambling during the lockdown as the industry booms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":"During Australia's COVID-19 lockdown, online gambling expenditure surged by 67% in early April, prompting a leading health professional to warn against operator exploitation and advocate for government intervention. This significant increase in GGR highlights heightened responsible gambling risks and potential for regulatory scrutiny amidst altered market conditions, including the rise of novelty betting markets.","focusai_entities":"AlphaBeta, Deb Greenslade, Ballarat Community Health, Scott Morrison","focusai_location":"Australia, Ballarat","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), product_ux (0.7), marketing_crm (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Response Outlook","query":"What specific regulatory interventions or enhanced governance frameworks are the Australian government and licensing bodies considering to address the surge in online gambling GGR and mitigate problem gambling risks during and post-lockdown?"},{"label":"Operator ESG Strategy","query":"How are major iGaming operators in Australia adapting their responsible gambling protocols, advertising strategies, and B2C engagement models to address public health concerns and potential reputational damage from increased online activity during the pandemic?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,161,439],"tags":[289,7299,4138],"class_list":["post-5777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-daily-news","category-legal-news","tag-australia","tag-coronavirus","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5777","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5777"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21368,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5777\/revisions\/21368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}