'Alarming': One In 3 Aussie Children Gambling
About one in three Aussie kids are chancing on their futures, losing more than $18 million to betting each year.
The current findings released by think tank the Australia Institute reveal 30 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds gamble, with the figure spiralling to nearly half of 18 to 19-year-olds.
That's 600,000 teens gambling each year.
Gambling reform advocates say it's the result of a purposeful attempt by the gaming industry to groom children to gamble from a very young age.
"There is evidence that the betting industry targets kids as young as 14 years of ages through social media, prompting them to download gambling ads, and the saturation of betting ads around our major football codes is likewise luring children to bet," Alliance for Gambling Reform president Martin Thomas stated.
"It is both disconcerting and awful to understand that the number of teenagers gambling under the legal age would fill the MCG 6 times over."
The alliance is getting in touch with all candidates in the upcoming federal election to devote to the recommendations made following the Murphy inquiry into online betting, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
The questions's 2023 report found a "torrent" of marketing and simulated gambling through video games was grooming kids to bet and encouraging riskier behaviour.
It recommended an overall phase-out of all gambling advertising over three years.
Despite the review being all backed throughout parliament without any dissenting remarks, Labor has actually dragged its feet on gambling reform regardless of increasing pressure to prohibit wagering advertisements.
already rack up the world's highest gaming losses, positioning $244.3 billion in bets every year.
Rates of gambling have increased given that 2019 and average annual losses increased from almost $2000 per individual to about $2500, according to the Australian Institute report.
The country's total betting losses at $31.5 billion rivals the whole Northern Territory economy and is higher than the $21 billion lost to gambling in all of Las Vegas, the report added.