Australia’s gambling reform laws should impose age restrictions on online betting similar to those used for pornography, advocates have told a Senate committee examining the Digital Duty of Care Bill.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform said wagering services should be included in the proposed legislation, arguing that children should face comparable barriers when trying to access betting platforms and odds websites.
Alliance chief executive Sunita Bose told the committee on Tuesday that online gambling and pornography had “very similar” potential harms, despite both services being legally available to adults.
“Currently the draft Bill requires age assurance for pornography. We would argue that wagering is very similar. It is a service that is permitted for adults, but we should be using the best possible technology to ensure that kids are not using it,” Ms Bose said.
She said teenage gambling could have serious effects on mental health and family relationships, and called for online betting services to be explicitly named in the Bill as part of stronger child protections.
Underage gambling described as an ‘open secret’
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said parents and teachers had described a “free-for-all” in which teenagers were becoming immersed in gambling culture online.
“It’s like this open secret that young people are online gambling. These are meant to be sites that are clearly for adults. The comparison between the restrictions around a porn site … is really quite stark,” she said.
Senator Hanson-Young said that while young people might face checks when creating a betting account, there was no equivalent block preventing under-18s from visiting betting websites.
Mark Kempster, a reformed problem gambler who campaigns against underage gambling in schools, said he had become hooked at 15. He told the committee that three-quarters of 120 teenage boys at one school had either placed a bet or checked the odds for an upcoming sporting event.
“They sit around and they look at the odds on each other’s phones. They use accounts set up by older friends,” Mr Kempster said.
He said he had spoken to about 30 under-18s this year who were beginning to show gambling problems, adding that children could view betting odds online without the age restrictions visible on pornography websites.
