Category Archives: Gambling

Former Wallabies star David Pocock booted from parliamentary sports club

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Exclusive: Senator accused of bringing social club into disrepute after raising concerns about its association with betting lobby

Independent ACT senator David Pocock – a former Wallabies captain – has been banned from attending Parliament House’s social sports club after raising concern about its sponsorship by the gambling industry.

The former rugby star was on Thursday night told he was no longer welcome at Australian Parliament Sports Club events, and accused of politicising the organisation. He has been removed from group chats discussing its events.

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Greens and Australian Christian Lobby form ‘unholy alliance’ to shut down late-night pokies in NSW

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Exclusive: The political foes have set aside decades of animosity to ‘work constructively on gambling reform’ after both describing the NSW government’s actions as insufficient

Limited action on gambling reform and record levels of harm have prompted “an unholy alliance” between the Greens and the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), which has pledged to rally support for the progressive party’s legislation.

The offer of support came shortly after NSW Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann announced a bill to force the closure of all poker machine venues from 2am to 10am and remove exemptions for more than 650 pubs and clubs that can operate within this period.

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Richard Desmond legal action over National Lottery award to begin at high court

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Billionaire suing Gambling Commission for up to £1.3bn over licence award, with payout potentially funded by the taxpayer

The media billionaire Richard Desmond will begin a bitter courtroom battle with the Gambling Commission this week that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds in a row over the licence to run the National Lottery.

Northern & Shell and The New Lottery Company (TNLC), owned by Desmond, are suing the gambling regulator for up to £1.3bn, alleging “manifest errors” in the labyrinthine competition process for Britain’s largest public sector contract, the lottery licence.

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‘Time is running out’: Sportsbet offered share of $1m in bonus bets if customers gambled on AFL grand final day

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Online bookmaker’s offer, one of a series texted during finals, was valid only if customer took up a suggested same-game multi bet

Australia’s largest online bookmaker texted customers offering a guaranteed share of $1m in bonus bets if they gambled on the morning of the AFL grand final.

The messages were among a series texted to a Victorian man’s phone by Sportsbet during the AFL finals series in an apparent attempt to entice him to gamble more.

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Lucy Powell: Labour should raise gambling taxes to axe two-child benefit cap

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Deputy leadership candidate says party needs to be ‘clear that our objective is to lift children out of poverty’

Labour should consider raising taxes on gambling firms to cover the cost of lifting the two-child benefit cap, the party’s deputy leadership candidate Lucy Powell has suggested.

The Manchester Central MP, who is battling with the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to succeed Angela Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader, also acknowledged the public was “exasperated” because of “some mistakes” Labour had made in office.

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Rachel Reeves due to appear at gambling lobbyist’s event amid tax review

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Chancellor’s invitation criticised as ‘strange timing’ with Treasury looking at whether to raise duties on £12bn sector

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been urged to cancel plans to be the guest of honour at an event hosted by the chief lobbyist of the gambling industry while the Treasury is in the midst of a review of taxes on the £12bn sector.

Reeves is slated to appear at a “private reception” for business leaders, organised by the corporate communications company Brunswick, at the forthcoming Labour party conference in Liverpool.

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Gambling lobby’s sponsorship of Australian parliament’s sports club condemned by crossbench MPs

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Exclusive: Kate Chaney calls on PM to remove Responsible Wagering Australia’s membership, which allows sponsors to access ‘key opinion leaders’

Crossbench MPs and a transparency group have criticised the gambling lobby’s sponsorship of federal parliament’s sports club, alleging it paid to secure access to decision makers and entrench wagering’s close association with sport.

Responsible Wagering Australia has also been accused by the independent ACT senator David Pocock of “shamelessly” trying to claim it was involved with a running group devoted to eliminating suicide, which was hosted by the parliamentary sports club.

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Sportsbet advertises multi-bets on AFL website after pulling TV ads due to ‘community sentiment’

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Ads encouraging sport fans to ‘bet now’ do not breach any rules but gambling reform advocates say it shows industry attempts to self-regulate have failed

The gambling giant Sportsbet has splashed ads for its expanded same-game multi-bets on the AFL’s website, months after pulling them from free-to-air broadcasts due to “strong community sentiment”.

The ads, which reveal Sportsbet now accepts same-game multi-bets on how many possessions a player acquires during a match, encouraged people to “bet now” and surrounded the AFL homepage.

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Australian doctors call for clampdown on social media influencers allegedly glamourising poker machines

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Doctors’ warning comes after report reveals the social cost of gambling in Victoria had doubled to $14bn

The peak body for Australian doctors has urged politicians and social media companies to restrict “shocking” content of influencers allegedly glamourising poker machines on social media, in what it called an incredibly new phenomenon.

The warning comes after a report commissioned by the Victorian government found the social cost of gambling in the state had doubled – from $7bn in 2014-15 to $14bn in 2022-23 – despite fewer people gambling.

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Australian influencers warned after several accounts inadvertently promote illegal offshore bookmakers

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Exclusive: Leon Australia calls itself ‘Australia’s #1 Interactive Gaming and Sportsbook since 2008’ but is licensed in a tiny island off Africa

Social media influencers have been inadvertently promoting a gambling company that poses as an Australian outfit but is instead licensed and regulated from a tiny island off the east coast of Africa.

The influencers, including someone claiming to be “Australia’s #1 biological male” and a duo called DegenerateAngelss, have also shared financial inducements from the bookmaker that encourage Australians into opening accounts with it.

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Adult gaming centres failing to help problem gamblers self-exclude

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UK regulator expresses concern as vast majority of centres visited by the BBC did not properly implement scheme

Flaws in a scheme meant to help gamblers bar themselves from 24-hour slot machine shops have been described by the industry regulator as “very concerning”, following revelations in a BBC documentary.

The Guardian has previously revealed how gambling operators are exploiting favourable planning and licensing laws to flood UK high streets with “adult gaming centres” (AGCs), which are disproportionately concentrated in the poorest areas.

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NSW government failing to measure or reduce gambling harm, damning audit finds

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Gambling losses and calls to helplines both up but Minns government has no benchmarks or measures to assess its harm minimisation strategy, report says

The New South Wales government has not set targets to reduce the harm caused by about 90,000 poker machines in the state and does not know if it is protecting people, according to a damning audit.

The state’s auditor general has also said the NSW government is doing “relatively little” to assess whether pubs and clubs are identifying and preventing gambling harm at their venues.

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NSW gamblers losing $24m to poker machines every day, analysis shows

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Wesley Mission says the ‘devastating impact deepens every day’ with one western Sydney area averaging $2m a day lost to pokies

The New South Wales government has failed to prevent serious gambling harm with $2.7bn lost to poker machines in the first 90 days of this year, according to a charity group pushing for tougher regulation.

Analysis of state government data by Wesley Mission has found the amount of money lost to poker machines during the first quarter of 2025 increased by 5.7% when compared with the same period in 2024.

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Gambling company offered Melbourne man $25,000 on condition he withdraw complaint to regulator and be liable for ‘adverse media’

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Exclusive: Conditions on settlement negotiations common in many industries but consumer advocates concerned they could be used to ‘silence victims and avoid scrutiny’

A Melbourne man says he was offered $25,000 by a gambling company on the condition that he withdraw a complaint to an industry regulator, agree to confidentiality provisions and indemnify them, including against adverse media coverage.

Gordon Burns, 23, argues his 2022 betting frenzy with two bookmakers showed “consistent patterns of addictive behaviour” and alleges that no one from either company checked on him to minimise gambling harm.

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Number of vape shops in England rises by almost 1,200% in a decade

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Research also shows deprived areas have up to 25 times as many bookmakers and pawnbrokers as affluent high streets

The number of vape shops on high streets across England has increased by almost 1,200% over the past decade, while deprived areas have up to 25 times as many bookmakers and pawnbrokers as affluent ones, according to research.

In 2014, only 33.8% of 317 local authorities in England had a vape shop, rising to 97.2% in 2024. Similarly, in 2014 less than 1% of local authorities in England had 10 or more vape shops, rising to 28% in 2024.

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‘Proud to’: Liberal MP spruiks tougher gambling proposal, but says Coalition plans good ‘first step’

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Exclusive: Keith Wolahan launched ads supporting stronger stance two days after federal election called, but also says Coalition policy important ‘first step’

A Liberal moderate who was part of a bipartisan parliamentary committee that urged the federal government to adopt a total ban on gambling advertising has paid for campaign material, stating he was “proud to” do so, inadvertently highlighting different policy positions within the Coalition.

The Coalition has resisted calls from advocates to take a policy to the election that would ban gambling advertising outright, instead pledging to ban “gambling ads one hour before, during and one hour after live sports broadcasts”.

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‘We stuffed a lot of things up’: Sportsbet CEO slams his company’s past advertising campaigns

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Barni Evans laments being involved in an advertising ‘arms race’ and says company did not do enough to stop integrity threats to major sports

Australia’s largest online gambling company has conceded it failed to properly understand its responsibility to prevent financial crime and did not do enough to stop serious integrity threats to major sporting codes.

The Sportsbet chief executive, Barni Evans, told an industry conference in Sydney on Wednesday that the company “forgot to do some grownup things” and “stuffed a lot of things up”, including its involvement in an advertising “arms race”.

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Australians lose more money to gambling in a year than government spends on aged care, report finds

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The $31.5bn lost each year likened to a ‘hidden, unspoken black hole’ that cost-of-living policies have not addressed

Australians are losing more money to gambling each year than the federal government spends on aged care and almost as much as it spends on the national disability insurance scheme, a new report has found.

The report by Equity Economics found that despite the cost-of-living crisis, the amount of money being lost to gambling has significantly increased. Expenditure on gambling has also risen faster than the cost of education, housing and inflation.

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Gambling companies threaten to ramp up betting promotions to counter AFL revenue grab

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Exclusive: Critics say inducements are harmful and urge a ban as recommended by Murphy inquiry

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Gambling companies are preparing to ramp up their use of harmful inducements that encourage people to spend more money, in response to the AFL’s push for a bigger slice of gambling revenue.

Earlier this week, Guardian Australia revealed AFL executives had cited concerns about serious shortcomings in the integrity system to justify a campaign to seize a bigger share of money gambled on its games.

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AFL admits it has lost control of online gambling oversight amid spike in ‘integrity risks’

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Exclusive: Leaked documents reveal the AFL struggles to detect if players are using inside information to manipulate betting markets, despite close ties to industry

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The AFL has admitted its integrity system for online gambling is seriously deficient and struggles to identity whether players, coaches and staff are using inside information to manipulate betting markets, in breach of their contracts.

Leaked documents seen by Guardian Australia reveal executives have expressed alarm about an “unprecedented” increase in “integrity risks” posed by the wagering industry, which has exploded in popularity since the pandemic with more than 80 bookmakers now taking bets on its games.

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