$50M Waterhouse deal exaggerated: NRL

Actually Scott, I thank whoever it was at Channel Nine who thought it would be an awesome idea to have Tom Waterhouse not only spruiking odds left, right & centre, but also commentating on the footy. What it means now is that Waterhouse's smarmy facade has been exposed so much quicker. ;-)

I'm as outraged as I was when the anti-gambling proponent Russell Crowe did a backflip and took millions of dollars Star Casino offered him.

Just like the government telling us smoking is so bad, meanwhile they are quite happy to grab the tax dollars smoking provides. Now the NRL has sunk to a new low. First making it near touch football with no shoulder charges, now it going to be questionable if the contests are legitimate with betting available on so many parts of the game. I see trouble coming with this

While we're at it - lets re-engage some sponsors of the past - like British Tobacco. We can have Ray Warren up in the box puffing on a fat Cuban cigar and letting it hang from the corner of his mouth as he spruiks the odds for Blinky Bill. Smoking is still completely legal as well.................... isn't it Eagle Jack ?

Dougie, good article matey, shame you ran out of ink. I have to say that I think Tom comes over well on TV and obviously been very well coached. His stats info is very good and accurate. Whoever is supplying the stats knows his stuff. Dont blame Tom for doing his best for his product, but you can blame the NRL and Ch 9 for approving the content. I am surprised that the NRL did a deal with a bookie who lost millions last year and do not promote him on their website. The brand Tom Waterhouse brand has taken a major punt on TV advertising and if it dos not come off then they may struggle to get into the black which should be a concern for the NRL. Did they do a due diligence on their new partner? Just because you have a dad called Robbie and a mum called Gai you are automatically granted long term success. I would love to bet with you Tom but I cant get on.

So, when your dad was an SP bookie, it was illegal, right? So EVERYTHING was going on behind the scenes, wasn't it? That makes for a lot more possible corruption, doesn't it? What Waterhouse is doing might not be palatable to a lot of us, but it's out in the open for us to make our judgments, and it's not corrupt.

No , It's not illegal, but perhaps it should be. Where ever you have betting, corruption follows. My dad was an SP bookie, so i have been around betting for a long time, but I never bet and neither does my father, as he is well aware of what goes on behind the scenes.

I was not targeting you, i was targeting them. If you do the right thing then you set the example for others. Nobody can save the world, all i said was the government is not doing enough, if they try to make a change, i might bother myself. But while this country stops every year to learn how to gamble, i wont be putting in the hard yrds or criticising anyone. The governmnet takes with one hand, gives with another. They all promote Casinos, all the states want one, not a word against them.

I don't gamble, I don't smoke, I barely drink and I hardly even eat sugar. This isn't about me wanting protection for myself, it's about recognising the reality that I can't expect everyone to be like me either because they have a chemically driven genetic predisposition that gears them more aggressively toward addictions, or simply because environmental and developmental factors have made them incredibly poor at exercising self control, or even understanding the effect of cumulative short term weaknesses (people always finding excuse to "treat themselves" with shit food, more booze, putting a bet or not doing any moving). The fact that you drink more as a result of quitting smoking is sad by the way. Taking a positive step for your health and life-style should help build virtuous cycles, not act as an excuse for you to congratulate yourself for doing a little good by cancelling it out with something just as bad. I whole-heartedly agree that something quite serious needs to be done about gambling in all its forms, but me standing outside parliament house isn't going to do stuff all. The change needs to be pursued by government, but the current one is too weak, while the Abbott one would never dare because it is already in the pocket of big business and will easily justify a lack of intervention of spurious airy fairy libertarian grounds.

Gotta say the Ch 9 coverage has started off this season very shabbily. Not withstanding the constant Tom Waterhouse slots why is Cameron Williams the anchor ? What was Karl doing on the Dogs v Eels preview ? Did anyone notice the post match analysis - Dragons v Broncos Wiliams had his tie undone on camera ? Rabs talking about the ponies ?? It's started off as a circus. Fix it Ch 9. You completely butchered the Rugby and now it's amateur hour with the NRL.

I can tell you something, and i happen to have given up smoking myself over a year ago. I drink more, and if i gambled, i probably would be gambling more if i had more money from saved smoking habit. I would love to see the increases in Gambling and drinking now smokers have to do something else. I know gambling is making billions and billions, just ask Packer, he wants more more more casinos, more more more fruit machines, more more more misery. Give me the figures, i will show you giving with one hand and taking with the other. This government survives on the misery of others, just ask my brother in law who lost his house this year, small business owner.

I dont know if you missed the last Tom Waterhouse story, again i will say, when the country stops so we can all learn how to gamble once a year at the Melbourne cup, then you know you have a problem. And until the government stops this practice, i dont give a bullocks about Tom Waterhouse or any other bet mob. and that includes the lovely Jamie Rogers who i am sure nobody has a problem with, yet she promotes gambling nicely,. This is like a casonova in the penhouse with the lights off, they all wonder who the casanova is, he says give us a kiss and i will tell you . Go camp outside parliment house in a tent and protest the Melbourne cup, only then will i take this seriously. It is the same as saying he cant be a millionaire, he is to ugly, or he cant train horses, his head is to big. Your either making a stand or just shouting down tall poppies while another takes his place. You want to make a stand, dont bet, i dont. I have never been happier. As i mentioned elsewhere, take responsibilites for your own actions.

Yeah, fair comment. Perhaps what needs to be done is a slow and increasing stigmatisation campaign supported by strict laws that limit the presence of gambling in public life, somewhat like what has been done to smoking. The heavy handed and progressively stricter approach to smoking has certainly worked - roughly 14% of the adult population is all that's left smoking now, a massive success in the face of powerful corporate interests.

And well done to him. Nothing illegal about it (despite what the moral brigade cry) and he is far from the first person to attempt to do so. He just happens to do it very well. Perhaps a little overzealous joining the commentary team to spruik his product, but hats off to him for trying.

we should do what this front underpants stain does by ruining families and ruin his family by boycotting anything and anybody associated with the Waterhouse name.

Though you can argue that the prohibition of hard drugs rather than regulation has led to more problems than soltuions

I honestly can't stand the pervasive presence of gambling in sport in this country, and Tom Waterhouse's attempts to confuse things even further by embedding himself in commentary are utterly deplorable and disgusting. It simply shouldn't be legal. In fact, how is it legal to advertise ANY gambling in this country? A lengthy article in the Australian Financial Review about a year ago showed that statistically Australians are the second biggest mugs in the world when it comes to gambling per capita - only being edged by Singapore (where millionaires go to avoid tax and so blowing a tonne of cash on a bet is just a bit of fun). After us the next 6 worst countries suffered around half the losses we do. That statistic is utterly pathetic and deplorable. Gambling is an addictive and anti-social behavior that is more damaging and socially corrosive than cocaine usage, yet not only do we allow it to be legal, we F@##ing promote it all throughout our sport! It's time the government grew a set of balls and just banned it out-right. ALL of it. Gambling operates on a clear and well documented reaction in the hypothalamus to chance events that produce pleasure, and it has been demonstrated to have addictive effects as strong as any drug bar meth-amphetamines. Sure, you can argue that some people are fine and have the odd flutter, so it should simply be regulated, but that's just nonsense in my view. We ban things like ice, cocaine, steroids, heroine etc because we understand they have the potential to ruin people's lives. Gambling is in that category in this country. Like sh#t eating habits and a lazy population, it's one of our primary social evils and needs a firm hand.

Everywhere that I have seen a report on Tom Waterhouse's pervasive on screen presence it has been followed by outraged comments, such as we see here. I have seen no-one, not one person, come to his defence, which quite frankly is exactly how it should be. He exploits people, has made a fortune by doing so, and is now touting himself as some kind of sporting expert even though in his ads he reminds us that he isn't. It appears as though the audience are speaking with the same voice: "Waterhouse! Get off our screens!"

“I wasn't born to be a footballer. I wasn't born to win a major. I wasn't born to wear the baggy green. But I was born into money and use that position to destroy the lives of the economically disadvantaged each and every day”

I don't care what the number is, just get him off my TV screen!!