The Australian capital is considering a gambling advertising ban, which has prompted several gambling and media leaders to descend upon Canberra to assist in the deliberation around how stringent these new amendments should be.

This has initially come in the form of both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton meeting with chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Tim Costello.

Industry leaders

In lieu of these discussions, market leader Sportsbet has released its first-half results which were admitted to be heavily predicated on a massive spike of Australian advertising investment.

The Flutter-owned operator has stated it has enacted an “additional marketing spend of ￡10 million [A$19.5 million] to defend our leadership position”.

This has had the intended effect as the result shows a 7 per cent increase in the first half of 2023 bringing Sportsbet’s average players per month up to an impressive record of 1.066 million people.

Tobacco comparison

A similar blanket ban as is being considered for gambling has been enacted before when tobacco advertising was banned across the oceanic nation. 

This type of ban has been heavily suggested by the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs which has pointed to the effectiveness this ban has had in lowering the smoking rate in Australia to a level impressive on a global stage.

This in turn saves the state millions in Medicare, reducing the once enormous tobacco-related hospitalisation rate.

This is comparable to the impact of problem gambling in Australia as $25 billion a year comes in losses come from individuals and families, however after tax is applied this can push a lot of people to turn to Centrelink and welfare.

This is a similarly heavy burden on the federal government, however, given that gambling is one of the rare revenue options that specifically benefit states, the national government sees barely any revenue derived from gambling activities.

Other considerations

A gambling advertising ban would also see a welcome change for many pokie machine operators mainly in the form of pubs and clubs that compete with foreign operators through advertising for a decent market share.

This would also see states’ revenue remain less affected as the $8 billion that is derived from pokies are not dependent on key advertising campaigns. An effect that would be magnified beneficially should the ban go ahead.

The lobbying power of big tech firms must not be underestimated either especially when these earn a collective $400 million or possibly even more annually from gambling sponsorships.?

Who will be most affected?

There are numerous gambling stakeholders that will probably remain largely unaffected by a blanket advertising ban, tech conglomerates such as Alphabet and Meta certainly won’t be concerned since their market share is already the most powerful in the game.

The Murdoch Family controls a mass of several news corporations valued at a staggering A$30 billion, and may survive without gambling ads quite comfortably but will be more than likely to replace this revenue with real estate advertising dollars.

However, it is in this area of television that may be worst affected, instances such as ASX-listed Sports Entertainment Ltd. are of concern since it owes over half its $47 million worth in debt. 

A gambling ban would cause a far too significant amount of its $60 million annual revenue to be lost. 

The AFL’s stake

Additionally, sporting codes, the AFL in particular, rely heavily not only on revenue from sponsorships but it has also been revealed as of late that they also receive a cut of betting revenue on their events and competition as part of a partnership agreement.

The AFL is also considered a not-for-profit organisation and therefore does not pay corporate tax, however, this also means that demand may also be made in lieu of this new legislation due to the running of AFL’s Dockland’s stadium and the annual player salary bill which is currently set to surpass $700 million. 

SiGMA Balkans/CIS

As a globally recognised nexus for networking, SiGMA Group sets its sights next to the Balkans this September, when the SIGMA Balkans/CIS Summit heads to Limassol Cyprus.

A host of networking opportunities and industry-leading knowledge will be emanating from the much-anticipated event which will pack panel discussions, keynote speeches, start-up pitches and much more into 3 days in the diverse Cypriot city.