Online gambling ads are relentless. Whether you’re watching your favourite team play on TV, mindlessly scrolling through social media, or even trying to scan an important document using what you thought was a credible app – there are flashy, high-octane, almost impossible-to-skip ads calling you to “bet big and win big.” Worryingly, our children and young people are more likely to be attracted to them. 

Behind these alluring and catchy slogans, lies a crisis that’s tearing apart the lives of countless Australians. As addiction psychiatrists, who treat people with gambling disorders, we see it every day. Our patients tell us how these ads act as a trigger, sparking their urge to gamble, even when they are trying their hardest to stop.

Gambling addiction has a devastating impact on an individual’s life. We’ve seen relationships crumble, homes and money lost, and people driven to criminal activity as a result. Gambling harm is also linked to intimate partner and domestic violence, and economic abuse of women.

Online gambling is designed to be addictive. Imagine being haunted by the sounds and images of a mere app on your phone, that triggers a rush so powerful that it drowns out all reason. Not everyone can get help, and those who do, only do it when they have been pushed to their limits by shame, stigma, and endless despair. In our service, up to 80% of patients who come to access treatment for gambling harm report suicidal thoughts and 30% have tried to end their lives in the past year. In a Victorian study, 4% of suicides were related to gambling.

Gambling disorder is internationally recognised as a clinical condition, under the category of addictive behaviours and substance and addictive disorders. It is a public health issue – one that concerns psychiatrists and mental health professionals greatly due to its association with mental health conditions.  

Rural Australians, already facing higher rates of mental illness and suicide, are at greater risk. They have limited access to mental health support services but are bombarded with ads that exploit their isolation and prey on their vulnerability. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and those from low socio-economic backgrounds are also disproportionately affected by gambling, worsening pre-existing health disparities in our country. 

And then we have a generation of young Australians that are growing up seeing and believing that gambling and sporting events are inextricably linked, creating a dangerous culture.

The economic toll of gambling is equally staggering. Australians are losing more than $25 billion a year to gambling, leading the world in per capita losses. The everyday Australian knows this. According to polling released by the Alliance for Gambling Reform, more than 70% of Australians believe there is too much gambling advertising in sport and want it to be banned.

The logic that gambling ads are necessary to keep free-to-air TV afloat is a dangerous fallacy—one that suggests we are willing to sacrifice the welfare of Australian families, and particularly our young, for the sake of television revenue. Gambling is as addictive as substances - we do not allow advertising of vaping for fear of the impact on our young people. 

We need to ban online gambling advertising entirely. Not just during certain hours, not just in certain places, but across the board. 

But banning ads alone is not enough. As the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians emphasise in their new joint position statement, we must also ensure individuals with gambling harm have access to treatment. 

This needs to be evidence-based, widely available, with the input of those with lived experience and delivered by trained professionals who can identify harmful gambling behaviours and also screen for and treat the often-co-occurring mental health issues. 

Amidst the ongoing public discourse, the Albanese Government has a real opportunity to set an example by prioritising public health over corporate greed. By banning gambling ads and investing in the mental health workforce, they can save lives from being lost to gambling addiction.

- Professor Michael Baigent and Professor Malcolm Battersby