About one in 3 Aussie kids are rolling the dice on their futures, losing more than $18 million to gambling each year.
The latest findings launched by think tank the Australia Institute show 30 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds gamble, with the figure spiralling to nearly half of 18 to 19-year-olds.
That's 600,000 teenagers gambling each year.
Gambling reform advocates state it's the result of an intentional effort by the betting industry to groom kids to gamble from an extremely young age.
"There is proof that the gambling industry targets kids as young as 14 years old through social media, prompting them to download gambling ads, and the saturation of betting ads around our significant football codes is likewise luring children to gamble," Alliance for Gambling Reform primary executive Martin Thomas stated.
"It is both disconcerting and terrible to understand that the variety of teenagers gambling under the legal age would fill the MCG six times over."
The alliance is contacting all prospects in the upcoming federal election to devote to the recommendations made following the Murphy questions into online gambling, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
The questions's 2023 report found a "gush" of advertising and simulated gaming through video games was grooming kids to wager and motivating riskier behaviour.
It suggested an overall phase-out of all gambling advertising over three years.
Despite the review being all backed throughout parliament with no dissenting remarks, Labor has actually dragged its feet on betting reform despite increasing pressure to prohibit wagering ads.
Australians already rack up the world's greatest gaming losses, placing $244.3 billion in bets every year.
Rates of betting have actually increased since 2019 and typical annual losses rose from almost $2000 per person to about $2500, according to the Australian Institute report.
The country's overall gambling losses at $31.5 billion rivals the whole economy and is higher than the $21 billion lost to betting in all of Las Vegas, the report included.
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'Alarming': one in 3 Aussie Children Gambling
florida4662348 edited this page 2026-04-11 03:38:05 +08:00