'Alarming': One In 3 Aussie Children Gambling
About one in three Aussie kids are rolling the dice on their futures, losing more than $18 million to gambling each year.
The current findings released 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 supporters state it's the result of an intentional effort by the betting market to groom children to gamble from a really young age.
"There is evidence that the gaming market targets kids as young as 14 years old through social media, urging them to download betting advertisements, and the saturation of gambling advertisements around our major football codes is likewise luring children to gamble," Alliance for Gambling Reform president Martin Thomas said.
"It is both alarming and terrible to understand that the variety of teens gambling under the legal age would fill the MCG 6 times over."
The alliance is calling on all candidates in the upcoming federal election to commit to the suggestions made following the Murphy questions into online gaming, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
The 2023 report discovered a "torrent" of advertising and simulated gambling through video games was grooming children to wager and encouraging riskier behaviour.
It recommended an overall phase-out of all betting marketing over three years.
Despite the evaluation being all backed across parliament with no dissenting remarks, Labor has dragged its feet on betting reform despite increasing pressure to prohibit wagering ads.
Australians already acquire the world's greatest gaming losses, placing $244.3 billion in bets every year.
Rates of betting have increased considering that 2019 and average yearly losses rose from nearly $2000 per individual to about $2500, according to the Australian Institute report.
The nation's overall gaming losses at $31.5 billion rivals the entire Northern Territory economy and is greater than the $21 billion lost to betting in all of Las Vegas, the report included.