A surge in online gambling is transforming the way young Australians bet, with 24/7 application access and targeted advertising fuelling a silent addiction among online users.
From multi-screen bet slips to checking live odds mid football game, online gambling has been rapidly embedded into the digital lives of young Australians, according to a report by the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA).
The survey shows that in 2015, 5.9 per cent of men bet on sports; however, in 2022, this figure jumped to 9.3 per cent, a 57.6 per cent increase over the last seven years.
Australian National University (ANU) Director of Gambling and Research, Aino Suomi broke down the data in an ANU report that showed sports betting was on the rise.
“The gambling advertising online, [is] completely unregulated, we don’t have a strong regulatory framework for that,” Professor Suomi said.
“So that will be driving the uptake of online gambling as well.”
Sports betting among the 18-24 year-olds is the fastest-growing demographic in Australia’s gambling landscape, with social media advertising and gambling apps becoming easier to access.
With this increase in online betting among young people, risky gambling in this demographic has almost doubled since 2015.
While younger Australians are the largest online gamblers, long-time bettor Brett Kellaway has observed this shift in real time.
“I do notice, especially with the two football codes, the AFL and NRL, ads for gambling,” he said.
“There are so many apps now and different companies that you can bet with.
“It’s more prevalent now than it’s ever been, especially when there are some teams that actually have betting agencies on their jerseys as sponsors.
“There are a lot of disclaimers that are coming with the ads these days, but I still think more should be done. I don’t think there should be any gambling advertising with any sport.”
As the online platform of gambling continues to grow, data shows that young Australians’ betting behaviours are set to further increase, a trend which raises concern for policymakers, educators and the wider online community.
