'Alarming': One In Three Aussie Children Gambling
About one in 3 Aussie kids are chancing on their futures, losing more than $18 million to betting each year.
The newest findings released by think tank the Australia Institute reveal 30 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds gamble, with the figure spiralling to almost half of 18 to 19-year-olds.
That's 600,000 teenagers gambling each year.
Gambling reform supporters state it's the outcome of an intentional attempt by the gaming market to groom children to gamble from a really young age.
"There is proof that the betting industry targets kids as young as 14 years old through social media, urging them to download betting advertisements, and the saturation of betting ads around our significant football codes is likewise luring kids to gamble," Alliance for Gambling Reform president Martin Thomas said.
"It is both disconcerting and terrible to comprehend that the variety of teenagers gambling under the legal age would fill the MCG 6 times over."
The alliance is calling on all prospects in the upcoming federal election to commit to the recommendations made following the Murphy questions into online betting, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
The questions's 2023 report found a "gush" of advertising and simulated gambling through video games was grooming kids to bet and motivating riskier behaviour.
It recommended an overall phase-out of all over three years.
Despite the review being all backed across parliament without any dissenting remarks, Labor has dragged its feet on betting reform in spite of increasing pressure to ban wagering ads.
Australians already acquire the world's greatest betting losses, positioning $244.3 billion in bets every year.
Rates of betting have actually increased because 2019 and average annual losses increased from almost $2000 per person to about $2500, according to the Australian Institute report.
The nation's overall betting losses at $31.5 billion competitors the entire Northern Territory economy and is higher than the $21 billion lost to gambling in all of Las Vegas, the report included.