The chief executive of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Carol Bennett, said so far reform in Australia to target online gambling, advertising and products aimed at children had been piecemeal and slow.

“It’s at a time when the community is really screaming out for some change in this area,” Bennett told Guardian Australia. “They’ve now started implementing and putting in place the things that are way overdue, long overdue. We’re playing catch up.”

The new Labor government in New South Wales is removing gambling-related signage from pubs and clubs. The signage must be removed or altered by the first of September, with banned terms and images including VIP room, VIP lounge, dragons, coins, and lightning. Advocates for gambling reform have welcomed the move.

Monday Matters: Guest Carol Bennett, CEO of Alliance for Gambling Reform, discusses how her organisation strives to make Australia a safer, healthier, and more equitable society by reducing gambling harm.

Long-awaited legislation banning the use of credit cards for online wagering could easily be extended to other payment channels that access accounts linked to mortgages and overdrafts. “Hopefully, these long-overdue changes will be the start of real gambling reform in Australia,” said Alliance CEO Carol Bennett.

“At a symposium in Adelaide on Monday, both the Public Health Association of Australia and the Alliance for Gambling Reform said a [gambling harm] unit should sit within the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. They also called for a properly resourced national regulator and for a mandatory pre-commitment scheme for online gambling services.”

Credit cards will no longer be used for online gambling under legislation that will be introduced by the federal government later this year. "We look forward to working with the government and getting these reforms introduced as soon as possible," said Alliance CEO Carol Bennett.

The CEO of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Carol Bennett, said her group welcomed the change.

“This is a significant measure in reducing harm from online gambling. We know many people experience high level of gambling harm and those people are far more likely to use credit cards to obtain cash advances. This is money people can scarcely afford to use,” she said.

Bennett admitted there may be “loopholes” to the policy, such as using credit cards to obtain cash instead, but said it was important to bring online gambling policies into line with other wagering.

Alliance for Gambling Reform chief executive Carol Bennett said the move was “long overdue”, with the need for change raised for about eight years. “We know that there’s a staggering amount of Australians who experience this kind of harm,” she said.

...The Alliance for Gambling Reform welcomed the penalty, saying it was a watershed moment that highlighted the value of a national regulator.

But chief executive Carol Bennett said governments needed to invest more in reducing gambling harm.

“This $450m would fund around 10 years of specialist gambling treatment, research, support for people harmed by gambling, policy development and advocacy,” she said...

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was right to put gambling, and more particularly sports gambling advertising, in the national spotlight in his budget reply speech to Parliament last week.

With Australians losing $25 billion to gambling every year - more than any other country - it is an issue that has profound financial, societal and health impacts for the country.

For someone who is experiencing gambling harm, either due to their own gambling or someone else’s gambling, finding a quality service is often difficult.

People with lived experience regularly tell us they struggle to find independent and quality information about what is on offer and the likely outcomes of any referral.

Canberra’s newest region, the Molonglo Valley will not have clubs with poker machines. "Dr Paterson’s campaign is going that step further to look at how we can create clubs and connection without harm.” Said Kate Seselja

“Banning this sort of credit is important … lots of other countries did it a long time ago, it’s about time that we actually caught up.” Said Rev. Tim Costello regarding the legislation banning credit cards for online gambling.

Alliance for Gambling Reform chief executive Carol Bennett said the ban would make a huge difference for gamblers struggling with addiction, but it was a long-overdue reform advocates had been urging action on for years.

Bennett said the government had “no alternative” but to take further steps in regulating the industry to seriously tackle addiction and harm after a parliamentary inquiry into online gambling, which will hand its recommendations to the government later this year.

The use of credit cards for online wagering could soon be banned, under a Federal Government plan to minimise problem gambling. It means people who want to do sports or racing betting online have to use money they actually have, a policy that's already in place for in-venue gambling.

Featured:
Amanda Rishworth, Federal Social Services Minister
Carol Bennett, Alliance for Gambling Reform
Kai Cantwell, Responsible Wagering Australia

Gambling losses in Australia amount to a staggering $25 billion annually - losses that, per capita, are greater than anywhere else in the world and 40 per cent greater than the next biggest losing country.

The harm from gambling reaches into every corner of our land, every community across Australia is impacted. This is not just a problem for a few, as critics of gambling reform often retort.