This week, a Senate inquiry held two days of hearings into Australia’s gambling industry.
The inquiry is examining a Government bill that would limit the ways gambling can be advertised.
Throughout the hearings, witnesses described how gambling companies allegedly offered problem gamblers inducements including drugs and escorts to keep them betting.
Here’s what else it heard.
Gambling
Australia records the highest gambling losses per capita in the world.
The Australia Institute estimates Australians lost $36 billion to gambling in the year to March alone.
That works out to more than a thousand dollars a year for every adult in the country.
The Australia Institute highlighted online gambling as “a significant driver of the growing toll.”
2023 review
In 2023, Labor MP Peta Murphy chaired a parliamentary inquiry into online gambling.
The final report made 31 recommendations, including a total ban on gambling advertising, phased in over three years across TV, radio, social media and sports sponsorship.
It also recommended a national gambling regulator, a ban on inducements (encouragements used to keep you betting), and a national public education campaign.
Murphy died later that year.
2026 bill
Last month, the Labor Government introduced the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026.
The bill is part of its response to the Murphy-led review.
If passed, it would cap gambling ads at three per hour on free-to-air TV and ban them during live sport broadcasts in those hours.
Critics say it falls short of the Murphy review’s call for a full ban.
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On 1 July, the Coalition, the Greens and crossbench senators voted to send the bill to a Senate inquiry rather than debate it straight away.
Inquiry
Public hearings ran for two days this week in Canberra, with gambling companies, reform advocates and industry parties presenting evidence.
Former NRL player Luke Bateman told the inquiry on Monday that gambling companies unofficially offered him illicit drugs while courting him as a “VIP” punter.
He said his gambling addiction cost him tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Bateman told TDA he wants to see the Government “put in the regulations and the protections that should have been there from day one”.
Separately, gambling reform advocate Tim Costello told the inquiry that TAB and Sportsbet had provided accommodation, escorts, and drugs to a ‘high roller’ (a person who regularly bets large sums of money) now facing charges in a Sydney prison.
Both companies said they had found no evidence supporting the claims, and asked for more information so they could investigate.
Sportsbet director of corporate affairs Jules Norton Selzer told the inquiry: “We have no tolerance for that kind of deplorable conduct.”
Children
Throughout the hearings, some senators expressed concerns about children being exposed to gambling advertising.
Independent senator David Pocock shared screenshots from a bet365 promotional video during the hearing.
It showed a relay race between children, with some of the children dressed in bet365 branding.
Responsible Wagering Australia CEO Kai Cantwell said it was something he could “take away and raise with my members.”
Response
Deputy PM Richard Marles said the Government’s focus is on getting the reforms through Parliament.
Shadow Communications Minister Sarah Henderson said the bill is “riddled with deficiencies and must be significantly amended,” and that the Coalition “won’t be supporting this deficient legislation in its current form”.
The Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young told the Guardian her party also can’t support the bill in its current form.
The committee’s report is due on 17 August.
