Gambling ads take over televised sport

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 20 Apr 2014.

If you’re someone who loves their televised sport and you’re sick and tired of the creep of gambling advertsing in the game, you’re not alone.

Researchers from La Trobe University have found that footy fans are exposed to more than five minutes of broadcast gambling advertising on average at an AFL match, and on-field gambling advertising far outweighed other advertising during commercial breaks, particularly during Test and international cricket.

Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation chief executive Serge Sardo said children were now “growing up in an environment where everywhere they look they are being told to gamble.”

He said the lessons of alcohol and tobacco suggested on-field advertising was highly effective at encouraging certain behaviours.  The gambling industry needs to change the way it does business before community concerns about public health and harm minimisation force governments to step in with a heavy hand.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.