Why Do Australians Throw Away Billions Gambling?
Now, I have met plenty of numbskulls downunder and yes, intelligence is never guaranteed, when it comes to human beings. Still it begs the question, why do Australians throw away billions gambling? Aussies are the biggest losers per capita in the world when it comes to gambling losses. This is nothing to be proud of and would provoke a fair bit of ribbing on work sites, if known to a bloke’s workmates. You have probably heard of the expression ‘dumb luck’? Well, Aussie men, and it is predominantly guys, have got the dumb part down but are fresh out of luck, it seems. The Scots have sayings about how a fool and his money are so easily parted. I guess Australians must fall into this category.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4MSHGEw2U8
Australians Are The Biggest Losers Via Gambling
The online gambling business in Australia is worth some $50 billion annually. That is a lot of losses. You see all those ads for corporate bookmakers everywhere and they cost a lot of money. Who is paying for those ads? Yes, all those millions of losers downunder. Australians are the biggest losers. This massive multi-billion dollar industry is regulated by 6 part time retirees in the Northern Territory. Talk about toothless tigers! The various governments, state and federal, all go along with this sham because they derive lots of revenue and donations from this industry. They are content to see al these losers, as they are getting their cut.
Are Australian Governments Protecting Corporate Bookmakers?
In another strange anomaly, the proceeds of crime when gambled and lost are not subject to the various proceeds of crime laws at state and federal levels. The onus should be on corporate bookmakers to ascertain the source of funds being gambled consistently, as the instances of money derived via theft and fraud and then gambled online are many in Australia. Again, the governments seem to be leery about doing something in this regard. It is, almost, as if they have friends in the online gambling sector who are opposed to such legal moves. Are Australian governments running protection rackets for the online gambling concerns? It sure could be read that way.
“The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) establishes a scheme to confiscate proceeds of crime and allows for confiscated funds to be used to benefit the community.
Under section 298 of the Act, confiscated proceeds of crime can be re-invested in programs for relevant purposes, including crime prevention and law enforcement.
We are responsible for the policy development of programs funded under section 298 of the POCA.
Following a machinery of government change, grants relating to crime prevention transferred from the Attorney-General's Department to us on 13 May 2025.”
- (https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/criminal-justice/proceeds-of-crime-act)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asmdFM-nVY4
Money Laundering Via Gambling
You can see how legal gambling can be used to launder money so easily. What if organised crime had pre-arranged deals for funds to be purposely lost via gambling and later returned via winning bets. Money all clean of criminal taint, apparently. The whole gambling industry is prone to these kinds of criminal activities by the very nature of the business.
Why do Australians throw away billions gambling? Psychologically, risk is something that we all want to feel on occasion – the excitement of it. This can become addictive, of course, as so many, apparently, fun things can. The very idea of winning easy money suckers quite a few in. The motivation for another cohort is to outsmart the odds – to prove yourself right by picking a winner. The appeal of this places a person’s self-esteem on the line when betting. All of these things operate at a more heightened level than the grind of working 9 to 5.
Online sports betting ads heavily use humour in their content to alleviate any concerns about what prospective punters are actually doing. At a time, for many, when cost of living via increased housing expenses and elevated prices for food and energy are at a premium, risking losses from gambling are not really some throwaway thing. Making the whole idea seem like one big joke is a tactical psychology. The losses soon mount up and the financial pressure builds on individuals, relationships and families. Domestic violence often is the outcome in such situations. Partners lie about their gambling losses and marriages get trashed along the way. Children suffer, as families are broken up. Gambling is not a joke!
“Australians lose more money gambling per capita than any other nation on earth.
“Gambling is a major public policy issue in Australia, affecting the health and wellbeing of individuals and families in a range of ways. Estimates suggest that Australians lose approximately $25 billion on legal forms of gambling each year, representing the largest per capita losses in the world (Letts 2018; QGSO 2022).”
- (https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/gambling)
I watch some of those funny ads promoting gambling on TV and I wonder who their target audience is laughing at? ‘Stupid is as stupid does’, someone in the movies once said. There is public pressure on at the moment to ban gambling ads from our screens. Apparently, plenty of Aussies would like to see them disappear from our screens. The argument from some quarters against their demise is that our TV networks and sporting clubs would disappear along with them because they have become financially dependent upon the revenue from them for their survival. This is poppycock, of course, because they existed prior to the advent of this flood of gambling ads and corporate bookmakers came along. Sporting clubs will adjust, as they always have to whatever the current economic climate is.”
- (https://www.golfdom.com.au/australians-losing-billions-via-gambling-all-those-sports-betting-ads/)
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
