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To reduce gambling harms, the Greens have unveiled their plan to regulate online gaming at both the state and federal levels.
The Greens would like to rein in online gambling.
- Initiate a National Independent Gambling Regulator
- Online gambling should be regulated to reduce gambling harms. This can be done by imposing a pre-commitment requirement and creating an exclusion policy across all platforms.
- All gambling advertising, including radio, TV and online, must be banned
- Regulate gambling in videogames and ban “loot box” access by children under 18.
- Stop the influence of the gambling sector on politics by banning political contributions from the gambling business, preventing politicians and public servants de collaborating with the gambling industry.
Cate Faehrmann (Greens MP and Gambling Harm Reduction spokesperson) stated: “Online gambling has been the fastest-growing form of gambling, but our governments have not kept up. In an effort to reduce the damage that online gambling is causing, our plan will restrict online gambling and ban advertising.
Online gambling is particularly harmful to young people. We are letting a whole generation of young people be addicted to the predatory gambling industry without proper regulation.
You can gamble online from anywhere with your smartphone. It is extremely difficult for those suffering from gambling harms to limit their exposure to online gaming.
“The controls in our plan give people some control over online gambling platforms, and will make it easier to manage their spending.
“Gambling advertising has made gambling synonymous with having a bet. Seven out of ten people would like to see gambling ads banned. The Greens will make sure that happens.
“This plan will ban gambling advertising at any time, anywhere in the world, just as tobacco advertising was prohibited years ago.”
Senator Janet Rice, Greens spokesperson on Gambling Reform, stated: “We need an Independent National Gambling Regulator in order to control the harm caused this insidious business.
“The Greens plan will provide independent regulatory oversight at the Federal level. It will crack down on companies refusing to enforce online gambling restrictions and stop the gambling industry exploiting children through targeted ads and video games.
It’s not surprising that the gambling industry has been allowed run riot for so many decades by Labor and Liberals who both accept large sums from corporate donors to help them peddle influence.
“The Greens fight to restore integrity in politics and ban big-business political donations. It is time that politicians represent the interests and the needs of those who elected them, and not the interests or corporate lobbyists.
