Thinking Out LoudThis week at my home I sat with parents of a young man who is on remand awaiting trial for stealing to feed his gambling addiction. They are church-going people who feel utterly devastated as their son had never been in trouble with the law before until now. He stole millions from his employer to feed an addiction.
It started after seeing sports gambling ads, signing up for their apps and receiving “free money” and bonus bet inducements. And all this theft and gambling happened in just eighteen months. He will go to jail and the people he has defrauded will never see their money back, but the betting firms that knew he was gambling way beyond his income and capacity and kept sending him inducements will keep their money and continue to induce others.
Without banning gambling ads and inducements, as European nations have done, there are so many like him and there will be many more. Already half of Australian men aged 18-49 have gambling apps and the regulator for all this is the Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission made up by part-time commissioners who come from the racing industry. Why the NT? Because 80% of the sports betting companies are registered there and they pay little tax.
This farce of non-regulation continues because the Albanese government refuses to implement the recommendations of the Murphy Enquiry to ban gambling ads, ban inducements and establish a National Regulator. The combined forces of the AFL, the NRL and sports betting companies have a strange hold over this government.
This failure to regulate isn’t only a policy failure. It’s a disaster in the making that will sacrifice too many young men’s lives. When money runs the show, a real spiritual darkness takes hold. It has us in its grip.
This Thinking Out Loud was first published on Facebook.