'Alarming': One In 3 Aussie Children Gambling

About one in 3 Aussie kids are chancing on their futures, losing more than $18 million to betting each year.


The newest by think tank the Australia Institute reveal 30 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds gamble, with the figure spiralling to almost half of 18 to 19-year-olds.


That's 600,000 teenagers betting each year.


Gambling reform advocates state it's the result of a deliberate effort by the betting market to groom children to gamble from a very young age.


"There is proof that the gaming market targets kids as young as 14 years old through social media, prompting them to download betting ads, and the saturation of gambling advertisements around our significant football codes is likewise tempting children to bet," Alliance for Gambling Reform president Martin Thomas stated.


"It is both alarming and tragic to comprehend that the number of teenagers gambling under the legal age would fill the MCG six times over."


The alliance is contacting all candidates in the upcoming federal election to devote to the suggestions made following the Murphy inquiry into online betting, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.


The inquiry's 2023 report found a "torrent" of advertising and simulated gaming through video games was grooming children to bet and motivating riskier behaviour.


It advised an overall phase-out of all gambling advertising over 3 years.


Despite the review being all backed throughout parliament without any dissenting remarks, Labor has dragged its feet on betting reform in spite of increasing pressure to ban betting ads.


Australians currently rack up the world's greatest gaming losses, putting $244.3 billion in bets every year.


Rates of betting have increased given that 2019 and typical yearly losses rose from almost $2000 per individual 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 higher than the $21 billion lost to gambling in all of Las Vegas, the report added.