Gambling in sport is at long odds to go

Does anybody know where I can buy a tackling bag with Tom Waterhouse’s face etched into the front?

My girlfriend thinks I need to relax, so I thought bringing back the shoulder charge in my backyard and repeatedly knocking Tom to the floor might kill two birds with one stone.

At the risk of trivialising a serious issue, I will momentarily dispense with my Tom Waterhouse onslaught to reflect on the seriousness of gambling in sport.

I’m really happy to hear that the Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform chaired by independent MP Andrew Wilkie, is finally holding betting company’s feet to the fire when it comes to the shameless promotion of gambling in sport.

If you were unlucky enough to catch some of the Channel Nine coverage of the earlier rounds of the NRL, then you would no doubt be aware of the excruciating awkwardness that was displayed between Sterlo and the other panelists who had to grin and bear Tom Waterhouse discussing the game with them as though he no alternative agenda.

I’m not sure who will tackle this issue first, the NRL or the Federal Government, either way it is my sincerest hope that the insidious meshing of rugby league and betting be stopped in its tracks. I can already see the effects on my contemporaries, who now don’t see gambling and watching the footy as separate activities.

For them already, these are concepts that run hand in hand and it is the NRL who needs to stand up and put the welfare of its fans ahead of its bottom line.

If it’s not in your face at the ground in the form of sponsorship, then it’s up in your grill on the TV, odds dancing past the action every 45 seconds. Then you have genuine ads about betting in the breaks. Then you have commentators giving you live updates as they call the action, then you are whisked off to the betting headquarters to discuss the odds in more detail.

The media like to talk tough on players who are considered role models and showing the children of today how to act responsibly, well how about the game shows some responsibility as well, and stop thrusting odds in the faces of our impressionable younger viewers.

And seeing as I’m throwing out demands like some kind of trumped up social crusader, could we please ask Matt Shirvington to consider following baseball instead? I’ll bet you a tenner that my grandma could do a better job commentating, and she’s passed on!