BLUF
Sport is woven into Australian culture, but the relationship between sport and gambling has again surfaced after betting agency Sportsbet was fined a record $A2.5 million for breaching Australia’s spam laws earlier this month (March).Summary
This article by David Gallant and Sean Cowlishaw, writing for the University of Melbourne, makes the following points:
- The spam laws were designed to stop people from being bombarded with unwanted marketing text messages and emails.
- Australians lost approximately $A25 billion across all forms of gambling between 2018 and 2019.
- Per capita, our losses are amongst the highest recorded in the world.
- Betting on sports is the fastest growing form of gambling in Australia.
- Historically, there hasn’t been a strong relationship with gambling for most sports.
- The gambling industry in Australia today is so connected to sport that it’s almost impossible to enjoy a sporting event without being exposed to gambling.
References
References from the Web:
- FEB 2022 Sports gambling advertising must be reined in—The Age
- FEB 2022 Sportsbet to pay $3.7m in fines and penalties for sending 150,000 unwanted gambling ad messages—The Guardian
