'Alarming': One In 3 Aussie Children Gambling

About one in 3 Aussie kids are rolling the dice on their futures, losing more than $18 million to betting each year.


The most recent findings released by think tank the Australia Institute reveal 30 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds gamble, with the figure spiralling to almost half of 18 to 19-year-olds.


That's 600,000 teens gambling each year.


Gambling reform supporters state it's the result of a deliberate attempt by the gambling industry to groom kids to gamble from a really young age.


"There is proof that the gaming market targets kids as young as 14 years of ages through social media, prompting them to download gambling advertisements, and the saturation of gambling ads around our major football codes is also enticing kids to bet," Alliance for Gambling Reform president Martin Thomas stated.


"It is both worrying and tragic to comprehend that the number of teenagers 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 query into online gambling, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.


The questions's 2023 report found a "gush" of marketing and simulated gaming through video games was grooming kids to wager and encouraging riskier behaviour.


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


Despite the review being unanimously backed throughout parliament with no dissenting remarks, Labor has dragged its feet on gambling reform in spite of increasing pressure to ban wagering ads.


already rack up the world's greatest gaming losses, positioning $244.3 billion in bets every year.


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


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