The leader of the opposition Tony Abbott has recently declared that should the Coalition win the next election he will introduce regulations to ban the promotion of live betting odds during games if the TV networks fail to do so themselves.
Central to this issue is that children are being exposed to gambling at a young age, and that gambling has become so interwoven with our professional sporting landscape that the association these formative minds may develop is that gambling is not just normal, but a part of being a sports fan.
As an adult it is easy to see the promotion of live odds as a form of paid advertising, but imagining how a child would perceive this information, I can certainly see the merit in Mr. Abbott’s argument.
A child who loves sport is the purest fan. They enjoy a naive reverence of their sporting heroes, and maybe dream that they can one day emulate the great feats they witness.
They have little understanding of the business of sports, and have not developed the cynicism that this awareness creates.
A child’s focus should remain on the game and not on the night’s odds.
Children lack the awareness to comprehend how those odds interact with real life. By allowing children to associate gambling with their favourite sports, it runs the risk of making gambling appealing by association.
Kids need to be allowed to attain the appropriate level of comprehension before gambling is packaged to them as something positive.
If live odds are removed, and the promotion of betting agencies restricted to TV commercials, it would disentangle gambling from the actual discussion about sport.
Kids would still be exposed during TV commercials, but can clearly identify the exposure for what it is, advertising.
If sports broadcasts were adult only viewing, there would be no problem with live odds. But since it is not we must consider the reasons why gambling adverts are currently prohibited when PG content is aired on TV.
We cannot shield children from gambling completely, but by removing live odds from broadcasts, we allow them to develop their own associations with gambling, hopefully when they’re older.
Punters do not need the live odds to be able to place a bet. Betting agencies still have TV commercials and uniform advertising to promote their services.
The distinction is that it becomes easily identified as advertising, whereas the promotion of live odds during the broadcast blurs the lines.
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