Australia continues to grow destructive love affair with sports betting - Sensationalist Headlines

As the spring racing carnival kicks off this weekend with the Caulfield Cup, new figures show Australians are losing more money than ever on sports betting and racing. The latest statistics, published this month, show that as a nation we bet $209 billion in 2016/17, an increase of 0.7 per cent over the previous year. Singapore is a distant second. The data collected for the past 34 years and published annually by the Queensland Government Statistician's Office is considered the most comprehensive snapshot of gambling in Australia It shows that, when averaged out across the entire adult population, Australians bet almost $11,000 per person, making us far and away the biggest betting nation on the planet. "We see people who would not blink at spending $1,000 a bet," said Dr Kate Fennessy, the clinical lead at St Vincent's Hospital's Gambling Treatment Program in Sydney. We bet. But, more importantly, we lose. In total Australians lost $23.7 billion dollars on all forms of gambling in 2016-17 — pokies, lotteries, casinos, racing and sports betting — that's $1,251 for every man and woman over the age of 18. The biggest change is in sports betting, with a 15 per cent increase in the amount of money Australians lost from the previous year in that category. We're also losing more money on the horses, up by almost 7 per cent. ... Read more at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-20/australia-grows-destructive-love-affair-with-sports-gambling/10396984 The gambling culture here in Australia is absolutely disgraceful. No joke, but a big part of the Australian interpretation of masculinity is how much $ you’re willing to place on the dogs, ponies or pokies. Betting and gambling advertising really ought to be made illegal.

fuk u m8, you've clearly never had a night out with the boys, fucking with pokies. In all seriousness, yeah this shit is disgusting, they have betting advertisements for fuck sake. Feels like they're trying to make betting normal.

betting adverts are infesting all media here

jesus and I thought the US had a problem

Heavy drinking and gambling is not only the Australian stereotype, but a sad reality. Literally any sports event here in Australia has some kind of gambling ad in the adbreak.

You should see the situation here

what the actual FUCK

can we just give that 11k to everyone instead? even if everyone wasted it on jammy dodgers and commission furry porn it'd still be being put to better use than gambling it away

They should do an inequality-adjusted one, to see the actual effective loss of cash worldwide

We've banned all types of smoking advertising, we should really do the same with sports betting.

All but two states here have a state lottery, but that's just because they can't raise enough money unless they raise taxes which is impossible, when did gambling start being related to masculinity and machoness over there?

Gambling here has always been associated with pubs, which are of course a male-dominated venue. Eg it’s a common tradition go to down to the pub with ‘the boys’ to have some drinks, a chicken schnitty, and do some punting. Virtually all pubs have dozens of poker machines, as well as TVs broadcasting horse and greyhound races only. And yeah it’s gotten to the point where people doing multi-hundred $ hits on the pokies is a common occurrence, especially with cashed-up tradies. It’s all dick waving about how much you’re willing to risk.

i feel like that's just caused by huge outliers and not it being an actual average

not, that exactly how an average works if you want to eliminate outliers, using the median is a better tool

Of course. But the huge outliers are also somewhat offset by the $0 outliers of adults who do not gamble at all. But nevertheless, that is a higher per capita figure than any other country in the world.

It's ridiculous here. I've seen first hand damaging addiction to the point where lives are ruined. I've seen children and young teenagers addicted, because all their mates do it, to the point where they're stealing their parents' phones and credit cards. The advertising needs to stop. You can hardly see a news report, let alone watch an event, without the odds shoved down your throat.

Nobody ever really expects to win the big lottos. Gambling is a different story.