Complaints about gambling ads almost double, Australian media regulator says

The Australian Communications and Media Authority called for more power to restrict unlicensed gambling advertisements on Facebook, YouTube and Google to better protect children and vulnerable Australians.

Acma told a parliamentary inquiry the number of gambling inquiries and complaints it receives has been growing since 2018.

In 2018-19, the media regulator received 47 inquiries or complaints about gambling advertisements. That increased to 120 in 2020-21 before nearly doubling to 208 in 2021-22. Another 39 were lodged between July and September this year.

Acma itself had completed 11 investigations into advertising compliance since July 2018. It confirmed four breaches of an industry code of conduct and three breaches of online rules, leading to formal warnings, remedial directions or enforceable undertakings.

In May 2018, the Turnbull government restricted sports gambling advertisements on broadcast television between 5am and 8.30pm, with a ban on promotions from five minutes before the start of play to five minutes afterwards.

Acma said these restrictions were working as intended for broadcast media, but children were increasingly watching sport on streaming services not subject to the same regulations.

Acma encouraged the government to end a loophole that limits its ability to regulate gambling advertisements on global platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Google and Twitch.

Under current rules, the regulator can only ban the promotion of unlicensed gambling services on these websites if it is confident the majority of its audience is physically in Australia.