PM backs ‘right to punt’ as star cricketer takes campaign to Canberra

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed Australians’ “right to punt” and claimed sports organisations are voluntarily distancing themselves from wagering, as he goes slow on a promised crackdown on sports betting promotions.

Debate over the volume of ads flared up for the first time since the election after Australian international cricketer Usman Khawaja met with Albanese on Thursday to speak to him about gambling’s influence in sport.

Last term, Labor paused its own plan to ban gambling ads online and put caps on TV and radio ads – which it had committed to in response to a landmark report on gambling harm from the late MP Peta Murphy – in response to concern from the NRL, AFL and media companies about the impact the plan would have on their revenue, grassroots sport and Australian screen content.

There was an expectation among media, wagering and sports executives that Labor would get back into the reform process after the May election, but several sources involved in the gambling reforms said a go-slow was casting doubt about whether anything would be announced by year’s end.

Media companies including Nine, the owner of this masthead, have multibillion-dollar deals to broadcast sport, and in part recoup the money through gambling advertisements.

Another source said Communications and Sports Minister Anika Wells was exploring ways to soften the financial blow to media and sports outfits reliant on wagering revenue.

In his strongest signal yet that Labor might water down the proposed online ad blackout, the prime minister said on Thursday that he wanted to break the nexus between gambling and sports but that “a lot of that has been done voluntarily … by the sporting organisations”. It is not clear what measures the prime minister was referring to.

“Gambling is legal in Australia. We respect people’s right to have a punt,” Albanese said in response to a question from teal MP Kate Chaney, who cited the recent suicide of a West Australian man struggling with gambling addiction.

“The problem that we see with gambling is not someone having a punt on a Saturday at the pub. It is ongoing addiction to gambling which can be incredibly harmful.

“We have a responsibility to make sure the industry acts responsibly.”

Anti-gambling activist Tim Costello previously sounded the alarm over Wells holding the sports portfolio. The communications minister last term, Michelle Rowland, was not responsible for dealing with sport.

Influential football code chiefs, including the NRL’s Peter V’landys, have been lobbying the prime minister to back out of the advertising crackdown.

Chaney suggested on Thursday that sports executives had undue influence over Albanese, who did not cite evidence to back his claim that sports codes were decreasing reliance on wagering revenue.

Labor backbenchers spoke out last term about the need to follow through with the recommendations of their late colleague Murphy, who urged a phase-out of all gambling ads. Albanese said on Thursday that it was wrong to say Labor had not responded to her inquiry’s calls, citing the government’s creation of a self-exclusion register and a ban on credit card use in wagering. However, those were not part of Murphy’s report.

In a press conference alongside Senator David Pocock, Khawaja argued Labor had been weak on sports wagering.

“The relationship that young kids are having with gambling is scary and it’s dangerous,” Khawaja said, adding Labor had “100 per cent” been slow to enact change. “We are normalising gambling for the younger generation.”

“I play grade cricket with young cricketers who are coming through. There are 16-year-olds with gambling accounts and they cannot watch the game without putting a bet on.”

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