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A Government survey has revealed that young Australian people in the age group between 18 and 34 years are exposed to a higher risk of gambling-related harm than any other age group. On October 26th, the Australian Gambling Research Centre at the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) published its National Gambling Trends Study’s latest edition. The survey found that 18 to 34-year-olds who gambled on regular slot machines spent an average of AU$1,453 every month on all forms of gambling. In addition, a significant majority of 89% of them…

A former Member of Parliament in the state of Victoria, Russell Northe, has faced an almost two-year imprisonment sentence for using public money worth more than AU$170,000 to fuel his problem gambling. The Melbourne Country Court officially announced his sentence in the middle of the week, after 57-year-old Northe pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct while in public office. At the time, Judge Michael McInerney handed out a total effective imprisonment sentence of 21 months and further explained that if the defendant had not made a guilty plea, he…

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who is the Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens party and animal welfare spokesperson, has urged the Melbourne Cup to become “whip-free” following news that an international jockey has been banned from the race after violating the whipping rules in the UK. He insisted on making the next Melbourne Cup whip-free and shared that, in his opinion, that was the least that could be done to protect horses from the cruelty and pain associated with racing. Senator Faruqi shared that if the banned jockey had been whipping…

This week, Queensland’s Parliament is set to introduce laws aimed at restricting how much time and money punters are allowed to spend on poker machines. Under the new rules, punters will not be permitted to use cash for bets worth more than AU$1,000. The move will come as a major update to Queensland’s casino control laws that were set up about 40 years ago. The new piece of legislation includes all the remaining recommendations from the recent damning inquiry into the local gambling giant Star Entertainment. As previously reported by…

An investigation of Guardian Australia into the gambling crisis involving young people in the country unveiled a 16% growth in the number of young people seeking help for their gambling over the past financial year. The research also found that many of these youngsters enter adulthood with anxiety, depression, broken relationships, and financial debt. The ongoing youth gambling crisis resulted in some Members of Parliament (MPs) urging the Parliament to start an inquiry into the impact that advertising of harmful products and industries, including gambling, has on children and young…

Recent research carried out by a leading advice charity revealed that Glasgow was the city featuring the highest gambling-related harm rate in the territory of Scotland. The analysis, provided by GambleAware, revealed that fewer people in Scotland were accessing professional treatment and help for their problem gambling behaviour, especially in comparison to the number of people who did so on a national level. According to estimates provided by the largest charity that helps problem gamblers in the UK, 3.5% of people in Glasgow are put at risk as a result…

One of the largest poker machine venues in Australia has shifted gambling profits amounting to more than AU$26 million over an eight-year period to its parent company – a club from the National Rugby League (NRL) – while making claims that it has allocated the payments as a community benefit to receive a tax cut. New South Wales (NSW) clubs that donate part of their gambling profits to various community causes are subject to tax concession under the ClubsGrants scheme which allows local clubs to get a tax break if…

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) published a new report revealing that the country’s free-to-air television and metro radio channels featured over one million gambling adverts in the year that ended on April 30th, 2023. Half of these ads focused on the services provided by online gambling operators. The report published by the communications and media regulator uses Nielsen Ad intel data covering adverts data in Australia in the period between May 2022 and April 2023. As mentioned above, 50% of the adverts that were aired on metro radio…

Gambling operators will be forced to provide additional funding for problem gambling research, prevention and treatment by making payments of about £100 million a year to the National Health Service (NHS). This new requirement is set to replace the system of voluntary contributions that has been available for quite some time. Online casino and sports betting operators are set to pay a mandatory levy worth 1% of what they win from punters – a move that has been welcomed by anti-gambling campaigners and health experts across the country. Brick-and-mortar casinos…

The first GambleAware Week held under the lead of Premier Chris Minns’ Labour Government is set to focus on the actual cost gambling has on the community, as well as on the record amount of AU$100 million that local lawmakers invested in harm minimisation. This year’s GambleAware Week is starting today under the theme “What’s gambling costing you?”, which aims to encourage people to consider not only the monetary costs of gambling but see the bigger picture and the practice’s negative impact on society. Not all gambling costs can be…