'Alarming': One In Three Aussie Children Gambling

About one in three Aussie kids are rolling the dice on their futures, losing more than $18 million to betting each year.


The latest findings launched 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.


That's 600,000 teens betting each year.


Gambling reform supporters say it's the result of a deliberate attempt by the betting market to groom children to bet from an extremely young age.


"There is proof that the betting industry targets kids as young as 14 years of ages through social networks, advising them to download betting ads, and the saturation of gambling advertisements around our major football codes is also tempting kids to bet," Alliance for Gambling Reform primary executive Martin Thomas said.


"It is both alarming and terrible to understand that the number of teenagers betting under the legal age would fill the MCG six times over."


The alliance is calling on all candidates in the upcoming federal election to commit to the recommendations made following the Murphy inquiry into online gambling, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.


The inquiry's 2023 report discovered a "torrent" of marketing and simulated gaming through video games was grooming children to wager and motivating riskier behaviour.


It suggested an overall phase-out of all betting advertising over 3 years.


Despite the evaluation being all backed throughout parliament with no dissenting remarks, Labor has actually dragged its feet on betting reform despite increasing pressure to prohibit wagering ads.


Australians currently rack up the world's highest betting losses, positioning $244.3 billion in bets every year.


Rates of gambling have actually increased since 2019 and typical annual losses rose from nearly $2000 per person to about $2500, according to the Australian Institute report.


The country's total gambling losses at $31.5 billion rivals the whole Northern Territory economy and is higher than the $21 billion lost to gambling in all of Las Vegas, the report included.