Ryk Goddard
So you’ve had a gambling addiction?

Mark Kempster
I’ve had a really bad one.

Mark Kempster
I’m always an addict but I haven’t had a bet in five years now, and I do a lot of work with the Alliance as a recovery advocate, I suppose, and gambling advocate to try and shine a light on what I went through and help other people. But yeah, it’s really hard to try and get that every day and see it every day like we do at the moment when you are recovering from it. How much did you lose? $100,000 across about 10 years, and that’s just what I’ve worked out. It’s probably more than that with the money I gave back that I won and then bet back as well, but that’s easily what I would have lost across that time.

Ryk Goddard
What made you want to change your behaviour?

Mark Kempster
I got caught in the end. I had 10 years of lying to people, basically, and in the end it came out because it just turned me into this horrible, horrible person to be around. But in the end, it was a blessing because I got caught out with what I was doing.

Ryk Goddard
I mean, as a gambling addict, a former gambling addict, what impact does that advertising have?

Mark Kempster
It has a huge impact. I have so many people that message me when I do any type of media interviews that need help. Every day I’ll get people messaging me on social media saying they feel trapped by an industry because it is everywhere. We can’t escape it at the moment. There’s more than 1,000 ads on TV every day for gambling in Australia, let alone on social media.

Ryk Goddard
So are those really the problem more than if there’s a sports bet poster at the netball?

Mark Kempster
Well not really because it stops people going to enjoy their sport. We shouldn’t have to stop loving sport. I love football. I played football all my life down here. I don’t want to stop going and watching football because I’m afraid of what I’m going to see and having to explain to my children who I’m going to take to the football that I can’t go because there might be gambling advertising there. That’s not fair. We shouldn’t have to put up with that.

Ryk Goddard
And I mean, we know that we’ve made decisions about alcohol advertising. We’ve made decisions about tobacco advertising in that context. So it’s not like there is a precedent for these regulations.

Mark Kempster
No, it’s a public health issue. Cigarettes is the perfect example. That was a public health issue. Gambling is a public health issue in this country now. We have children, we have 600,000 children every year losing $600,000 worth of money for 13 to 18 year olds every year. They’re getting groomed to gamble at such a young age. We don’t need it in their face just because they want to go watch a footy game at a stadium or whatever else could be on that at the stadium.

Ryk Goddard
So these private members bills, what are you wanting to say to other MPs today when they consider them?

Mark Kempster
It’s not about banning gambling at all. And I think that’s the conversation that gets lost with a lot of people. They think we’re trying to ban gambling altogether. This is about making it safer for people to gamble and not having it thrown in people’s faces who are struggling. It’s the same with cigarettes. We wouldn’t go around advertising cigarettes everywhere. We wouldn’t want to go to Marlborough Stadium down the road from Hobart. We want to make sure it’s safe for people to enjoy it.