Young people ranked NSW's biggest problem gamblers

Over the next decade living in a regional coastal town he was consumed by betting, sometimes losing a week's paycheck in a single day.

"I didn't really have a limit," Mr Bateman, from the Central Coast, said.

"I'd do probably 50 [TAB] tickets a day and I'd just bet on things that I didn't even know about. It was crazy."

With the 2023 NSW election headlines dominated by poker machine reforms, young people - in the age group most likely to use gaming machines and bet on sporting events - appear to be the forgotten face of gambling harm.

Local pubs and clubs were regular meeting places for school leavers like Mr Bateman and his friends as they became the key target market for online betting companies.

"I'd just go straight to the ATM and get out $200 or $300 and that'd be gone in probably half an hour," the 28-year-old said.

Easily accessible, plentiful phone betting apps and shared gambling groups with friends soon followed.

"It felt normal," Mr Bateman said.

"Most of my mates still do it."

The most recent NSW Government Gambling Survey found people aged 18 to 24 were twice as likely as the state average to be moderate risk and problem gamblers.

This age group was most likely to have used electronic gaming machines and bet on sports in the past 12 months, followed by 25- to 34-year-olds.

Despite this, Monash University Associate Professor Charles Livingstone described typical pokie players - the focus of election harm reduction policies - as "older men in their 40s and 50s".

"They tend to be modestly educated, work in relatively low-skilled or semi-skilled jobs, often they might be divorced or separated," the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine gambling researcher said.

After a "wake up call" late last year Mr Bateman is now working with a financial counsellor, staying away from betting and regaining his family's trust.

"I'm actually starting to enjoy watching sport because I don't have my life on it," he said.

"But you can't watch it without a betting ad coming up."

Nielsen research in 2021 found that an average of 948 gambling ads were broadcast daily on free-to-air television in Victoria that year.

Sportsbet spent $139 million on advertising and sponsorship in 2020, which industry experts said put it into the country's top five marketing spenders alongside Harvey Norman, Coles and the federal government.

VicHealth research fellow at Deakin University Hannah Pitt said young Australians were exposed to gambling long before becoming adults, especially through digital and online media.

"Young people today are really that first generation transitioning into legal gambling age who have experienced all the prompts, nudges and rapid transformation of the gambling industry," Dr Pitt said.

"That's why we are seeing figures that would indicate young people are definitely at risk of experiencing harm from online gambling."

The 2022 Australian Secondary School Alcohol and Drug Survey reported 31 per cent of people aged 12 to 17 had previously gambled, a similar number found in the 2020 NSW Youth Gambling Study.

"This is one of the biggest public health threats to young people," Dr Pitt said.

Dr Pitt found 90 per cent of young people recalled gambling advertising on television and repeated exposure normalised and potentially encouraged gambling.

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Betting company PointsBet uses public figures recognisable to young people, such as Inspired Unemployed of Instagram fame and Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott to promote its brand.

And online betting companies are now looking beyond the saturated male market and appealing to young women with novelty markets on reality shows or the Super Bowl half time performance.

Sportsbet was recently reportedly targeting young women by pushing these markets through a closed pilot on TikTok with permission from the social media giant.

Dr Pitt welcomed recent poker machine reforms proposed by Premier Dominic Perrottet's government headlined by a state-wide move to cashless gaming in pubs and clubs by 2028.

But she said the government could take action beyond the pokie rooms by officially recognising gambling as a public health issue dealt with by NSW Health.

"That really means we're acknowledging the significant harms that gambling causes to not only individuals but their friends, their families and the broader community," she said.

While it does not oversee broadcast laws, an elected NSW government could follow in Victoria's footsteps which, in 2017, banned betting advertising on roads, public transport and within 150 metres of schools.

Former Office of Responsible Gambling programs like Odds on Youth, which provided funding to community groups and councils to reduce gambling harm among young people, could also assist.

The 2019 and 2020 early intervention programs did not extend beyond Sydney's inner west and south west.

A spokesperson for the Office of Responsible Gambling said the NSW government was spending $33 million on support, research and education in 2022-23.

This pales in comparison to the $2.18 billion NSW punters lost to the pokies in the third quarter of 2022 alone.

The major parties have aligned on certain gambling election reforms, including banning political donations from pubs and clubs with poker machines or proposed bans on external, promotional venue signs.

But many consider the Coalition's cashless gaming pledge, which Labor has only committed to trialling on 500 machines, to be the strongest harm reduction election proposal.

They include 26-year-old Riverina woman Louise Dart, who could for the first time vote for a Coalition government.

"That is one issue that I feel could sway my vote," Ms Dart said.

"There are no social benefits to pokies. If the only benefit to pokies is funding clubs and RSLs, then f--- them."

A traditional Labor or Greens voter, the regional lawyer said she was surprised the Liberal party was promising stronger reforms.

"Labor policies haven't brought much to the table," she said.

"Particularly that their response is: 'we're going to try it in a couple of pubs and see how we go'."

Still undecided, Ms Dart will weigh up whether this one big issue could ultimately swing her vote on March 25.

Let's not ignore new voters who will be running this state before we know it.

This country needs an engaged young public for a bright future, not one increasingly disillusioned with politics.

While we're at it, let's lower the voting age to 16. If you can drive around our roads in a steel deathtrap, you can use a pencil to help pick your local representative.

Our vote matters because the status quo has never endured.