“It’s a health issue”: Shaun Micallef backs gambling advertising ban

If a ban on gambling hits TV network revenue, so be it, says Shaun Micallef, after educating himself on the industry for an ABC doco series.

Shaun Micallef has backed recommendations to ban gambling advertising, whilst acknowledging it will hit TV network revenue.

But after exploring the gambling culture for his new 3 part ABC series Shaun Micallef’s Going for Broke, he is convinced of its addictive nature.

Having immersed himself in the worlds of online gambling, pokies, racing, two-up, and their associated addictions, he concurs with the 31 recommendations of the late MP Peta Murphy’s review, titled “You win some, you lose more.”

“Peta Murphy’s report says that it’s a health issue rather than just a broadcasting issue,” he tells TV Tonight.

“The recommendations are all important because they’re all nuanced, but the major one would be Advertising because that’s where it gets into kids’ heads.

“The link between Sport and gambling is not something that was at all discussed or considered when I was growing up.

“I’m not suggesting that we always have to live in the ’60s…. But if you grow up expecting Sport to be linked with gambling, then I think maybe there’s some seeds sown there for problems later on. So it would be nice if, in the way of alcohol and tobacco, we didn’t twin the two together.

“If that means the revenue’s a bit down for the television networks, then so be it, I suppose. It’s a public health issue, ultimately.”

In April the government announced gambling ads will be partially restricted on television and radio, with opt-out rules for online promotions and a ban in stadiums and on jerseys.

Last week the government was criticised for tabling its full response on the same day as the Federal Budget, including when many political journalists were sequestered.

In Going for Broke Micallef investigates Australia’s love affair with gambling, tracing how a national pastime became a $32b industry to make sense of how Australians have become the biggest losers in the world. The doco, which follows on from Shaun Micallef’s On the Sauce, sees him lay his first bet in decades.

“It’s essentially the same motivation as the first one actually, because my kids were teenagers the first time and alcohol seemed front of mind. They’re now in their mid to late 20s, and the prevalence of the gaming apps was something that I thought, ‘That’s something interesting.’ I have no advice for them, because A, I don’t use my phone very much, and B, I’m not a gambler. So many young men, particularly, also young women, are being lured into this relationship with their phones and gaming apps,” he continues.

“Then there was the broader question of gambling, which again I have a lack of approach to, I suppose, in the way that I do with alcohol, and said, “Don’t know it, don’t get it, don’t understand.’

“So maybe I just find out what it is that drives so many people in this country to have a flutter every now and again, and sometimes more than every now and again?”

In episode one he visits the Mungery Picnic Races in western NSW where locals and visitors come together for a horseracing meet. Chatting with locals and immersing himself in the raceday culture, he breaks his abstinence for a flutter.

“There’s something about having the money in your hand or in your pocket that has an inbuilt limit. You know, a beginning and end to it, and also, if you go to a race meeting, then there’s four races or five races, so again, it’s self-contained,” he observes.

That differs significantly to online gambling which he found has no beginning or end to it.

“It could go on forever, as long as you keep participating in it, and I think that’s the big cloud looming over the subject of gambling.”

Micallef also meets two women at opposite ends of the pokie experience – Maureen, a social player who sees it as a day out, and Anne Maree, who spent 17 years under the spell of machines carefully engineered to keep people playing. In Melbourne he visits Caulfield RSL on Anzac Day to watch the annual love affair with Two-Up.

“We had cameras there during the Dawn Service portion of that day. I’m standing there and there’s a lone bugler playing The Last Post, and we had the camera pointing in his direction. But just behind him, over his shoulder was a TAB sign. I thought ‘That’s your shot.’ And it was an honest shot. We were just filming a reverential moment and it’s literally on his shoulder,” he recalls.

“In a way, that’s what your phone does, it pings and it whistles, and it tells it’s been a couple of weeks since you placed a bet. Would you like $50 in your account, come back and earn a bit of fun? So this bloody thing is constantly tapping you on the shoulder.”

But there was no luck in hearing from any casino management in Australia.

“No. I mean, there were a lot of gentle and polite declines when we asked to speak to those who are receiving the bets. We did speak to the head of the lobby group Responsible Wagering Australia, the forward-facing public face of the gambling industry. They’re there to have a chat to the press every now and again, but apart from the RSL CEO who was nice enough to sit down and talk to us -and he had his reasons for doing that- there was a reluctance.”

It was a similar no go with Australia’s big racing tracks.

“Maybe they were worried it was going to be a hatchet job. But the show is not that. I’m a guest in their world. I would have been perfectly happy to a chat to someone like Peter V’Landys. I think he’d be very interesting to talk to, given how many fingers he’s had in any number of pies to do with sport and wagering. It’d be really interesting to get his point of view, and if he was relaxed about it, then I’m sure we would have a decent conversation.”

Gambling apps remains a serious consideration in the world of addictions, with algorithms and technology working 24/7 to put gambling at your fingertips.

“They’re really just a hose going into someone’s pocket. They don’t make anything. It’s not even a healthy, symbiotic relationship that a shark might have with a remora or a hippopotamus has with a tick bird. It’s a parasitic relationship. I sound like I’m being a bit judgy now, but it’s kind of hard to see it any other way,” he insists.

“By the time we get to the second and third episode, we drill down as best we can on that side of the equation. We talk a lot to those who use the apps or those who do who have run into trouble sometimes using those, and it seems to be increasingly the case as we’ve heard here in Victoria with a number of decisions from the coroner’s court.

“It’s really hard to turn the ship around if you’re in trouble using these gambling apps, and the consequences are irreversible often for many people.”

Shaun Micallef’s Going for Broke 8pm Tuesday on ABC.