The latest poll by RedBridge showed that 72 per cent of all Australians want a full ban on gambling advertising.

The results were especially strong among Labor voters, but even among Coalition voters 65 per cent supported a total ad ban.

But it is the qualitative findings that weave a narrative that should send a chill down the spine of our political leaders.

It shows that the electorate has made a strong link between the cost-of-living crisis and inaction on gambling reform.

In the interviews conducted by RedBridge, gambling ads were raised, unprompted, by people as a key issue of concern for them and amid the squeeze on household budgets gambling is making it increasingly harder to keep families together.

Kids targeted

Voters have also made the link between gambling losses and the public health impact, especially when it relates to our kids.

Parents are angry and worried sick about the targeting of their children through sports, social media and the gamification of gambling.

But the interviews also found that the backlash against greedy corporates – a sentiment that has fuelled the outcry over our supermarket duopoly – is also being identified with gambling advertising.

Continued inaction by the federal government on the proliferation of gambling advertising on our screens is seen as it siding with predatory big business and against families.

The fact the latest Grattan report into gambling highlights that political donations from the gambling industry spike at times gambling reforms are being flagged – shows there is more than a grain of truth to this belief.

Anger rising

The anger against gambling ads and gambling harm is particularly strong in regional areas and in poorer postcodes across Australia.

It is an issue that will influence Labor’s core voting block – young people and regional centres that are fleeing from Labor and which threatens their ambitions in Queensland and NSW.

The interviews showed that the stalling of a decision on gambling advertising was only fomenting great anger across communities.

It has been more than a year now since the government received the findings of the Murphy Report that followed a parliamentary inquiry into online gambling.

Its 31 recommendations – including a total ban on gambling advertising, the banning of inducements (such as free bets) and the creation of a national gambling regulator – would dramatically cut gambling harm across Australia.

Problem increasing

Every year gambling rips out $25 billion from communities across the country and many of the postcodes that the gambling industry targets, especially through poker machines, are some of the poorest.

There is a myth that gambling only impacts a very small number of people and reform would make us all suffer.

After all who doesn’t love a gambling ad, right?

The numbers of people gambling in Australia continues to explode and the shockwave of their losses reaching into every household across the nation.

Roy Morgan research shows the number of people who bet on sports has doubled in the past five years. It shows that almost a million Australians (881,000) who sports bet are now considered problem or moderate risk gamblers.

When you consider that for every person with a gambling problem there is a family that is impacted – then the number of people directly impact doubles or even triples.

Crime links

There have also been many cases of people defrauding their employer to feed their gambling problem. So, business suffers and customers pay higher prices.

Then there is the plethora of research that shows gambling losses and harm are intrinsically linked to crime rates across Australia.

The latest is by National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre which published research in the journal Addiction that found, as gambling profits grew across NSW, crime rose with it.

Cutting gambling expenditure by just 10 per cent across NSW would result in 4579 fewer assaults; 4247 fewer break and enters; 1398 fewer car thefts; 2361 fewer stealing from motor vehicle offences; and 3793 fewer frauds each year.

The paper’s lead author concluded that the entire community suffers from Australia’s love affair with gambling.

Loophole

What is abundantly clear now is that the voters across Australia have made the link between gambling and the cost-of-living crisis, the harm to our kids, domestic violence and mental health impacts, the greed of predatory corporates and crime.

And they are furious that our politicians either have not made the link or are ‘in the pockets’ of big business with vested interests, political cheques and an army of lobbyists.

The Albanese government is currently proposing a partial ban on gambling advertising on television and some ban on gambling ads online – but who knows how far these online restrictions will go?

The public see a partial ban as a loophole which big gambling will simply waltz through and the ad fest will continue.

There are a growing number of ALP backbenchers who are voicing their concern – both publicly and privately.

Their political antenna is far better attuned that the ministers who have publicly warned that a gambling ad ban would hurt free-to-air TV, which in Australia is owned by the likes of billionaire Kerry Stokes.

Likewise, the Coalition is failing to lead on this issue and to state its position on a full gambling ad ban.

Voters are saying a pox on both their houses.

The longer the delay in tacking decisive action on gambling ads, the more the anger across Australian electorates will grow.

There is still time to do the right thing to protect the community and to protect our kids. And in so doing they will find some political gold dust.

Martin Thomas is CEO of The Alliance for Gambling Reform