More than 70% of Australians believe there is too much gambling advertising in sport and want it to be banned, according to new polling released by the Alliance for Gambling Reform.

The polling, which involved 1,004 people aged over 18 years, showed 77.6% believed there was too much gambling advertising in sport, while 71.3% thought gambling advertising should be banned from sport completely.

On both issues there was a stronger response against gambling advertising from men – who are mostly the focus of gambling advertising.

The polling also found more than 50% of people polled also believed there as too much junk food and alcohol advertising in sport.

“These results reveal the white-hot anger in the community about the proliferation of gambling advertising that assaults us around sport and which is particularly damaging to children who are routinely exposed to it,” the Chief Executive of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Carol Bennett, said.

“This is a clarion call for the Federal Government to immediately act on the recommendation of a parliamentary inquiry to introduce a three-year, phased-in ban on all gambling advertising.”

Ms Bennett said Australians lost $26 billion every year to gambling, meaning Australia was per capita the worlds biggest gambling losers.

“The financial, social and health cost of this gambling epidemic is enormous and it is fuelled by a near-unregulated environment that enables the gambling industry to bombard our screens with ads, often targeting children.”

The poll was conducted by Pure Profile between 14-18 June this year. The polling sample was nationally representative for age gender and jurisdiction

A copy of the report can be found here

Carol Bennett is available for interview.