Oral Presentation to Ban Gambling Advertising During Sporting Events

First of all, I want everyone to imagine a young kid, maybe 10 or 11. He is sitting at home watching his favourite footy team play on the TV. Before the game he sees the commentators throw over to TAB Sportsbet’s “Gary Davies” who tells him that Chris Judd is the favourite at $2.50 for the Brownlow and Collingwood is the favourite for the Premiership at $3.80. Although he doesn’t quite understand what these amounts of money mean he is still intrigued into what “Gary Davies” is saying. During that one match he sees countless ads for Centre Bet, Sports Bet, Sporting Bet and heaps of other betting agencies. He also sees several signs and posters with those companies logos on them in the ground, and even his own team has a logo on their jumper. After watching this game he is slowly but surely getting used to the idea of betting on sport. And this was just after one game, to one kid. Just think of the affect that this will have on our future society if 100’s of thousands of kids are watching these same ads through their entire child hood. So you have to ask why are we continuing to show these ads?

A recent study by the School of Psychology and McGill University showed that 10 – 15% of young people today are at risk of developing gambling problems in their adulthood. Psychiatrist Dr Maria Tomasic of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists states that problem gambling is often linked with psychological problems such as anxiety and depression, which can lead to crime, bankruptcy and even suicide. That’s not even beginning to mention the problems with gambling itself like addiction and financial issues.

So you have to ask why we are letting the next generation of kids be subjected to this when the consequences are clear? You only need to look at people like Brendan Fevola or Heath Shaw to see how gambling has affected not only their sporting careers but their lives in general. You know with Brendan Fevola, he revealed on his interview on The Footy Show that he was going to the races all the time and gambling on the horses, loosing huge amounts of money which not only ruined his career but also his relationship with his wife and his young daughter. And I’m sure most of you are aware what happened to Heath Shaw, he was suspended for 8 weeks for having one bet on an AFL game. So do we want every young sporting star to end up like those two who can’t even walk into a TAB without having a punt.

The AFL recently signed a 1.25 billion dollar broadcast rights deal, which will see more money in the game than ever before. In order to keep this money coming in the game must remain the great sport that it is now. People like Fevola and Shaw are ruining the integrity of the AFL all because of their problem gambling and the number of people doing this is sure to increase due to the amount of advertising that is around. At the moment, people are enjoying the game for what it is, a great spectacle and an enjoyable contest, but because the gambling cat has been let out of the bag, the integrity of our great game is at risk in the near future.

So the answer is blatantly obvious , get rid of gambling advertising and never have to deal any with these problems ever again.

You may have heard that ex Hawthorn President Jeff Kennet has also recently called for a ban on this sort of advertising. In an interview done for the Herald Sun newspaper he said “The worst thing is the intrusion of sports betting operators, where they have the odds now pushed in your face at the ground, on the TV and on the radio, it is just shocking, because it doesn’t discriminate between young people and old. Young children are getting it at five, six and seven.” He also claimed that the Government could stop advertising overnight and apply the same rules they do to poker machines or casinos.

This issue of gambling is soon to become a very serious one in not only the AFL, but rugby, soccer and even cricket. So something needs to be done to change this very soon. If it can be done overnight, then get it over and done with.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“BBC NEWS | UK | Gambling ads ban to be scrapped.” _BBC News – Home_. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

“Call to ban promotion of odds on live sport.” _The Age – Business, World & Breaking News | Melbourne, Australia_. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. http://www.theage.com.au/sport/call-to-ban-promotion-of-odds-on-live-sport-20110629-1gr22.html

“Waging war on bet advertisements – new minister worried | thetelegraph.com.au.” _thetelegraph.com.au | Breaking news, videos and pictures from Sydney, NSW, Australia and the world | DailyTelegraph_. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/waging-war-on-bet-advertisements-new-minister-worried/story-e6freuzi-1226034311405

Neate, Rupert. “Google to overturn UK ban on gambling advertising – Telegraph.” _Telegraph.co.uk – Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph – Telegraph_. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .