Leveraging insight from tobacco and road safety contexts, preventative advertising alone is insufficient. Government harm reduction policy and legislative enforcement, alongside addressing influences in the broader system is critical. Australia led the race in reducing tobacco harm with significant investment to addressing system impacts including bans on tobacco sport sponsorship, tobacco advertising and counter display communications, alongside plain packaging requirements. In turn, these actions significantly reduced capability of tobacco companies to recruit new smokers. Australia’s road safety achievements are attributed to significant investment in road safety advertising, improvements to roads and universal changes in driver training and attitudes.
To reduce gambling harm greater attention needs to be directed to the ‘gambling system’ rather than simply devolving all responsibility for addressing gambling harm to the individual, which in turn absolves betting companies’ responsibility beyond abiding government regulations. There is growing concern about the relationship between betting companies and professional sports teams and the growing reliance on betting money. Wagering companies have had a long relationship with professional sporting organisations, clubs, broadcasters and former stars. For example, it’s estimated the AFL possibly receives close to $40 million annually from their sports betting relationship. Taking a stance to alleviate the tension between Australian sport and normalisation of wagering there is hope with a growing movement of clubs and former stars ‘saying no’ to sports betting funding.
There is also momentum questioning whether gambling advertising needed at all. Australia took a stance to reducing harm from tobacco by attacking tobacco advertising and sport funding relationships. The question at the time raised by professional sporting leagues was ‘what will we do without tobacco funding?’. Sporting organisations survived. No doubt this question will be asked again if the government takes a strong stance to reduce wagering normalisation. No doubt sporting leagues will again survive.