'Alarming': One In Three Aussie Children Gambling

About one in three Aussie kids are chancing on their futures, losing more than $18 million to gambling 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 practically half of 18 to 19-year-olds.


That's 600,000 teens betting each year.


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


"There is evidence that the gambling market targets kids as young as 14 years old through social media, advising them to download betting ads, and the saturation of gambling advertisements around our major football codes is also luring children to gamble," Alliance for Gambling Reform president Martin Thomas stated.


"It is both worrying and terrible to understand that the variety of teens betting under the legal age would fill the MCG 6 times over."


The alliance is contacting all prospects in the upcoming federal election to devote to the recommendations made following the Murphy inquiry into online gambling, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.


The query's 2023 report discovered a "gush" of marketing and simulated betting through computer game was grooming kids to wager and encouraging riskier behaviour.


It advised an overall phase-out of all betting marketing over three years.


Despite the review being all backed throughout parliament without any 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 greatest betting losses, placing $244.3 billion in bets every year.


Rates of gambling have actually increased considering that 2019 and average yearly losses rose from almost $2000 per individual to about $2500, according to the Australian Institute report.


The nation's overall gambling losses at $31.5 billion the whole Northern Territory economy and is greater than the $21 billion lost to betting in all of Las Vegas, the report added.