My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Calcottin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily os It's Tuesday, the twenty second of August. I'm Zara Seidler, I'm Sam Kazlowski. Ozzie spend more on online gambling per person than any other country in the world.
What we see is an enormous number of Australians who are impacted by gambling.
Farm Now, the federal government has launched a new initiative to help people to ban themselves from online gambling. It's called Betstock and we're going to explain what it is and whether or not it's likely to work in today's deep dive. But first am some news from Victoria.
That's right, Australia's largest coal mine, which is in Victoria, will close in twenty thirty five. The Victorian government and agl have agreed on a twelve year notice period for the closure of the loy Yang Power Station. The site will begin transitioning workers and local community away from coal mining as Victoria moves to renewables.
Westpac has posted a profit of one point eight billion dollars. The bank said that a resilient quarter was to thank for the success amidst ongoing inflationary pressures increasing its expenses.
A state of emergency has been declared in parts of California as tropical Storm Hillary makes landfall. It's the state's first tropical storm in eighty four years. US President Joe Biden has ordered federal assistance to support impacted communities.
And with the World Cup now over, we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel to keep bringing you Matilda's good news. But the good news is that a rescued platypus and a Sydney zoo has been named Matilda, and that is of course in honor of the Aussie history making World Cup efforts. The platypus was four months old when she was placed in Toongazoo's care back in April after a difficult start to life. Matilda's health is
said to be going from strength to strength. Ozzie's will have the option to ban themselves from online betting under a new register that's been launched by the federal government this week. The register is called bet stop and it'll give people the option to basically ban themselves from online gambling from anywhere between three months to life. To talk about how this will all work and how effective it will be, I spoke to the CEO of the Alliance
for Gambling Reform, Carol Bennett. Carol, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today. Before we jump into anything, I'd love you to just explain what actually is betstop and how will it work in practice.
Well. Betstop is the new national self exclusion scheme for gambling online gambling. In practice, what it means is that people can go on and register online and they will then be able to exclude themselves from all opening new accounts, all bets, all promotions and marketing, and that can be for anywhere from three months or up to a lifetime, depending on what the individual chooses.
I mean, the thing that comes to me every time I hear about self exclusion registers is that it does take some level of self awareness and that with some problem gamblers. Perhaps they don't have that level of self awareness. So who is this trying to target. How does it help if you perhaps don't realize that there is an issue there.
Well, look, it's for anybody who feels that they're gambling is out of control, or that they don't have the ability to service their gambling debt. So it can be for any reason that anybody feels that they no longer want to either be promoted to by gambling ads, or they no longer want to run the risk that they might be spending money they don't have on gambling. So
it can be for any reason and for anyone. And you know, I guess the other element of that is that we need to make sure people are aware of this system, because if they're not aware of it, they can't self exclude. And I think that's a really important part of the implementation of this new system is to ensure that people are aware and are able to actually use the system that it works for them.
And this has been something that gambling reform advocates have been calling for a fairly long time. Why do you think it's taken so long to have something like this in place on a national level.
Yeah, Look, it's a good question. It has taken a very long time, eight years to get this implemented and a lot of work from a lot of people. Look, I think there has been a lack of leadership when it comes to gambling reform. Australians are the biggest losers in the world when it comes to online gambling, twenty percent ahead of any other country in the world. So you know, there's this blind spot that gambling is thing that people just choose to do in their spare time,
and that you know that it's entertainment and fun. Well, in fact, what we see is an enormous number of Australians who are impacted by gambling harm. So I think there's been a lack of leadership, a lack of commitment to addressing the issue. We know that gambling does generate significant revenue and that that in itself can be a barrier to governments committing to doing more when it comes to reducing the harms that go hand in hand with gambling.
So we want to see that change, and we want to see real leadership from the government, and we want to see a national strategy that it does enable people to address their gambling harm, whether it be this self exclusion scheme or other initiatives banning credit, banning advertisements, even extending this scheme to venues, clubs and pubs and other places where people might gamble.
I want to get to those interventions in a but first just to go back to something that you said before, And I mean, we hear the figures about how widespread of an issue gambling is in Australia, but I don't think I've ever actually interrogated why is it such an issue here? Like, what is distinct about our country that we have such an issue compared to other countries around the world.
Great question. Look, I think the thing is that we have allowed this to happen. We haven't had strong robust regulation when it comes to gambling like other countries in the world, and there hasn't been that leadership and commitment to addressing the issues, so we've seen it get out of control. We're now at a point where, you know, we've recently had a national inquiry into online gambling and it's harms. That report sets out thirty one recommendations to
the federal government. It's quite clear from that report that there is a significant issue in Australia that needs to be addressed and we're playing catch up. And we're playing catch up because we really just haven't put in place the things that we needed to have in place in order to stop this from getting out of control. So, for instance, you know, we're seeing gambling ads day and night on our screens at times when children are watching, and you know, it just has not been addressed and
we're now having to do that. And so this sort of scheme is just long overdue and desperately needs to happen.
And we have seen something like this on a state and territory level. Just last month, a fine was issued to a betting company for allowing a customer who had self excluded to open a new account in the Northern Territory. So how often do you think these types of things happen and how can we make sure that the same thing won't happen now with this new national intervention.
Yeah, well, there have been many instances in which people have self excluded, whether it be from state run self exclusion schemes or whether it be from gambling company schemes, and they have then been targeted and provided with more inducements to gamble more promotions, more marketing, and that has been you know a real problem for many people. There haven't been really good enforcement of fines applied when this occurs.
So even in the instances where we saw this happening multiple times in the Northern Territory, so you know, there were instances in which people who were on the self exclusion Register were targeted by gambling companies with inducements and it happened multiple times. The problem is the fines were only three four hundred dollars per time, so you know that's not a significant enough des incentive for companies to ensure that doesn't happen. A national scheme, it's a national database.
It covers all online and telephone bedding wagering operators in Australia. It's all in one place. You know, the federal government will be rec responsible for it through AGMA and we will certainly be letting them know if we see any cause for concern. We will be monitoring and I'm sure that there will be opportunities to have a say about how this scheme works and ensuring that it does work effectively for the people who need it.
And so do you see this, I mean you've spoken about a lack of leadership in the past. Do you see this as a turning point? Is that how substantial it is? Like, do we as a country ever get to a place where we don't have as big as an issue or as we currently do, or is it, you know, baked into the fabric of our society.
Well, it's not baked into the fabric of our society. I'm pretty certain of that. I think every other country thinks that that's the case for them too. But in fact, what it indicates is that as a society we just haven't dealt with the issue. But what we are seeing is a very clear community shift in attitudes when it comes to gambling, you know. And I think that's playing out in terms of you know, our state and federal politicians now needing to respond to that concern and seeing
some really significant failures when it comes to regulation. So I think it will change. I think it hasn't been an easy process to bring decision makers to the table to you know, get the change to happen that's needed.
Is that because of the gambling lobby. Is that the strength of you know, that industry as a whole.
Yeah, partly, and the fact that they have huge and deep pockets. And you know, often state governments we know are very reliant on the revenue they get from gambling. And you know, the federal government to some extent also very much influenced by the gambling industry donations to political parties. You know, they do have a place at the table, they shouldn't or at least if they do have one, that should be with a range of other stakeholders who
can count balance that influence. But a lot needs to be done to address.
This, and I mean thinking about the full spectrum of I guess interventions that are available to a government. This is just one of them, an exclusion registry, and again that relies on the individual identifying that as something that they need to seek help for. What are the other things that you hope to see you in the coming years, at least under this government in terms of trying to bring down the number of gamblers we might have in this country.
Well, the government needs to accept this as a public health problem because it is. And effectively, if you accept the gambling like alcohol, tobacco, driving in cars without seat belts, I mean, it's a harmful product. If you accept that premise, and then you go on to say well it's time for us to show some leadership. Well, then it's logical that you'd have some kind of national strategy or response. The National Online Inquiry has set out what needs to happen,
the roadmap for what we need to do. And it's not just one thing. It's not just banning gambling ads or just banning credit or just bringing in a self exclusion register. It's everything from prevention awareness, you know, making sure that people are educated about what gambling means in Australia and how they can manage any potential issues. Treatment services are woefully inadequate in this area. Research, We need
more research that's independent of the gambling industry. So there's a whole spectrum of things that have to happen to ensure that we're addressing the levels of harm we're seeing in Australia and we need to see national leadership on this issue. And it's across the board. It's not just you know, it's not just a financial issue or a regulatory issue. It's something that requires a public health approach.
We need help. You can reach out to the National Gambling Hotline on one eight hundred eight five eight five eight. Thanks for listening to the podcast today. We would really love it if you could leave a review on whatever app you're using right now. We'll be back again tomorrow. Until then, have a great date.