Gambling is increasingly recognised as an important public health problem that may cause significant health and social [1–6] harms for individuals, their families, and communities. Every year, over 400,000 Australian adults experience or are at risk of experiencing harm from gambling [7]. Importantly, for every person that develops harm from gambling products or services, up to ten others are also negatively impacted [7]. Researchers now estimate that the harms associated with gambling are now on a par with other major public health issues, such as alcohol and major depression [8].
While gambling is not traditionally seen as a consumption activity that may pose significant risks for young people (as compared to other similar activities such as alcohol consumption), research suggests that young people are at increased risk of harmful patterns of gambling as compared to adults [9–11]. Australian research shows that about half of all young people will have participated in gambling by 15 years of age, with about three-quarters participating by the age of 19 [12, 13]. Some studies suggest that about 4.0 % of Australian adolescents experience harm from gambling [14, 15], although it is important to note that these studies pre-date the newer forms of gambling, such as online sports wagering. Despite these figures, there is still very limited understanding of young people’s pathways into gambling. Researchers suggest that there may be a range of individual, socio-cultural and environmental factors that may lead to young people’s first experiences with gambling, and may lead some young people to be at increased risk of developing harm with gambling [16]. However, very limited research has explored how gambling industry tactics, such as marketing and the alignment of gambling with culturally valued activities such as sport, may influence young people’s gambling beliefs and consumption intentions [17, 18].
While most gambling products are available in land based environments, concerns have been raised about the growing number of gambling options that are provided via online environments, such as sports based wagering [19]. Wagering is the only form of gambling in Australia to have shown an increase in participation rates in the last decade, and is particularly appealing to young adults. For example in 2014, 10.56 % of 18–24 year olds, and 8.25 % of 25–34 year olds participated in sports and events wagering in the state of Victoria [20]. There may be a number of reasons for this increase in participation, including the ease and 24/7 accessibility of online gambling products, the competitive marketing environment for wagering products on both traditional and social media channels, the lack of a comprehensive regulatory environment for the marketing of wagering products, and the alignment of bookmakers with Australia’s elite sporting codes.
Standard Media Index (SMI) figures from 2011 to 2015 indicate a 160 % increase in advertising spend on gambling (and predominantly sports wagering) in Australia, with $236 million spent on advertising in 2015 [21]. While television advertising for some gambling products (such as Electronic Gambling Machines) is prohibited, there are comparatively very few restrictions relating to the marketing for sports and event wagering in Australia [22]. In 2008, after a High Court ruling in favour of bookmaker Betfair Pty Ltd, registered bookmakers were able to be registered in one part of Australia, while promoting their products in another [22]. Most of Australia’s bookmakers are registered in the Northern Territory, which has caps on taxation, and significantly fewer restrictions on the range of promotional tactics (such as incentives and inducements) that may be used by wagering companies to market their products [23]. While some states and territories prohibit some of these specific promotional strategies, they are still able to be promoted throughout Australia, with ‘fine print’ terms and conditions statements informing customers that the promotion is unavailable in their particular state.
While there is a broad national Australian Commercial Television Code of Practice [24] that details a range of requirements that gambling advertisements need to meet, these requirements have been criticised for not adequately addressing the content of gambling advertisements. For example, while the Code states that gambling advertisements must be socially responsible, must not contain children, must not make gambling appear to be a way of success or achievement, and must contain a statement relating to ‘responsible gambling’ or help services for problem gambling [24], there is very limited specific detail beyond this. There are also few regulations specific to promotions on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, with bookmakers regularly using social media sites during matches to provide live commentary based updates on sporting matches, memes, cartoons and funny videos, alongside prompts to bet [25]. Furthermore, there are significant inadequacies relating to the timing of wagering advertising. While the Code stipulates that gambling advertisements are not allowed to be played on television during the ‘watershed’ which replicates children’s viewing hours (4–7 pm), significant loopholes within these regulations means that gambling advertisements are able to be played during the ‘watershed’ if they are within a news, current affairs or sports program [24].
There are also very few restrictions relating to sponsorship relationships between gambling companies and sporting codes. Online bookmakers and casinos have sought to establish alignment with Australia’s elite sporting codes via multi-million dollar sponsorship relationships. While exact monetary figures are rarely disclosed, media reports have suggested a $50 million sponsorship deal between the Australian Football League (AFL) and official gambling partner Crown Bet [26], and a $60 million sponsorship deal between Sportsbet.com.au and the National Rugby League (NRL) [27]. The marketing impact of these sponsorship deals is clearly demonstrated in match based marketing outside of formal television advertisements, including signage around the ground, wagering and casino company logos on match jumpers, and score board advertisements [22, 28]. Sponsorship deals also have an impact on customer sign ups to bookmaker accounts. For example, after a reported $5 million sponsorship deal with the Australian Open tennis tournament, William Hill chief executive James Henderson stated that the partnering had led to “record customer acquisition rates” with a reported 1000 customer sign ups per day during the 2 week event [29].
Despite some policy efforts aimed at curbing sports wagering marketing during sporting matches [24], it has been argued that the ‘gamblification’ of sport means it is now almost impossible to avoid the marketing of sports wagering products whilst watching professional sport [22, 30]. Similar to the arguments made about the regulation of tobacco out of sport, researchers argue that there is an ethical tension that exists when sport is heavily marketed as being a ‘family friendly’ activity (and is watched by significant numbers of adolescents) [28], but also contains significant promotions for gambling products that may be ultimately harmful for young people. This is primarily because of the positive associations young people form between products and brands that are associated with sport.
Tobacco control researchers clearly demonstrated that the promotion of tobacco during sport had a significant impact on young peoples “subconscious positive associations” between tobacco and sport [31] [pg. 499]. This included young people’s awareness of cigarette brands, and their subsequent consumption preferences for these brands [32]. Similar normalisation trajectories have been shown in young people’s brand awareness of gambling products and companies that sponsor or are advertised during sport. For example, studies suggest that young people demonstrate both brand recall and preference for gambling products that are aligned with sporting teams and codes [33], and state that one of the environments in which they most see marketing for wagering is during sporting matches [18]. A recent study also suggested that young people who are fans of particular sporting codes – in particular the AFL and NRL – may have a higher awareness of wagering promotions than children who follow other sports (such as soccer) [18]. What is less clear from existing research is detailed information about how young people perceive the relationship between gambling and sport. Furthermore, very limited research explores parents’ perceptions of the promotion of gambling within sport.