Deputy Principal

Online Gambling 

Growing up, the Melbourne Cup which was on yesterday was always considered the ‘race that stops the nation.’ I remember being at primary school and could not wait to get home and see mum when she got home from work to see whether I had won any money. While I never bet on the Melbourne Cup when I was in primary school, mum would always put my brother and me in her sweep at her work. It was just something that was done. Looking back on it, it was the only time during the year that I was exposed to gambling.

These days our children are exposed daily. With streaming channels showing numerous amounts of live sport every day, we are exposed to betting continuously. Not only can you bet on what team may win or lose, but you can bet on who will be the first try scorer, who will score the most runs, who will even be winning at half time. Betting on horse racing, which mostly would be seen as targeting adults, has transcended to betting on sports that our children are watching every day. 

You cannot sit in front of a TV with your children watching sport without being told what the odds are on each fixture. Marketers are very smart; our children are being exposed to online gambling companies at a very young age. They may not be betting in primary school however, they can probably tell you the names of gambling companies. 

As we have put devices into the hands of our children at a younger age, we are training their minds to get those early hits of dopamine as they play their games on their screens. Their minds are inadvertently being trained to go after their next win. My fear is that it will be our children’s generation that will be the generation that will have greater issues with gambling.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies reported that 5% of 16–17-year-olds reported betting on sports games as well as horse and dog races which have strict age restrictions. In an article published in the Guardian last month, they wrote that “data provided by Gambling Help Online revealed a 16% cent increase in the number of young people aged 24 and under contacting the help service in the 2022-23 financial year”. 

Our children have access to debit/credit facilities on their card and/or phones. Even if they do not, they can go to the supermarket and use cash to purchase a prepaid debit/credit card. We are arming them with the tools that they need to gamble. 

Online gambling is legal. Our sporting codes advocate the government heavily to allow them to continue to have their sports bet on. I remember growing up watching rugby league which was called the Windfield Cup. While smoking advertising is banned these days, it has been replaced with gambling advertising.  You only need to look at many of the rugby league teams who are sponsored by an online gambling platform. We even have sports stadiums named after them. 

Each year Australians lose $25 billion on legal forms of gambling, the largest per capita losses in the world according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. We must educate our children about this issue. Our next step must be to have open and honest conversations with them about gambling. We must be role models when we are around them. They are facing more pressure from marketers than we ever did. We must help them navigate this issue and continue to guide them as parents.

Adrian Byrne

Deputy Principal