'Alarming': One In Three Aussie Children Gambling
About one in 3 Aussie kids are chancing on their futures, losing more than $18 million to betting each year.
The current findings launched by think tank the Australia Institute show 30 per cent 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 supporters say it's the outcome of an intentional attempt by the betting market to to gamble from an extremely young age.
"There is evidence that the gambling industry targets kids as young as 14 years of ages through social networks, urging them to download betting ads, and the saturation of betting advertisements around our major football codes is also enticing kids to bet," Alliance for Gambling Reform chief executive Martin Thomas stated.
"It is both disconcerting and terrible to understand that the variety of teens gambling under the legal age would fill the MCG six times over."
The alliance is contacting all candidates in the upcoming federal election to dedicate to the suggestions made following the Murphy inquiry into online gaming, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
The query's 2023 report discovered a "gush" of advertising and simulated betting through video games was grooming kids to bet and motivating riskier behaviour.
It recommended a total phase-out of all betting advertising over three years.
Despite the review being unanimously backed across parliament without any dissenting remarks, Labor has actually dragged its feet on betting reform despite increasing pressure to prohibit betting advertisements.
Australians currently acquire the world's greatest betting losses, placing $244.3 billion in bets every year.
Rates of betting have actually increased since 2019 and average annual losses increased from nearly $2000 per person to about $2500, according to the Australian Institute report.
The nation's overall gambling losses at $31.5 billion rivals the whole Northern Territory economy and is greater than the $21 billion lost to betting in all of Las Vegas, the report included.