Many other countries have a gambling culture similar to Australia, but Australians lose more to gambling than any other country in the world. Australians lose $25 billion dollars on legal forms of gambling every year.

This was just one of the messages we heard as part of the Federal Parliament’s Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs which has been conducting an Inquiry into Online Gambling and its Impacts on those Experiencing Gambling Harm. A direct line was drawn between our gambling regulations and the much tighter regulations in other countries.

The evidence we have heard has been at times gruelling. Full credit and thanks must go to the witnesses who talked to us about their own gambling addictions, and the families who told us of the impact having a gambling addict in the family had on them. Their honesty and bravery is commendable and the inquiry would have been less without their evidence.

Why online gambling? Of all forms of gambling, this one is experiencing both rapid growth in participation but also in the harm. This form of gambling goes with you wherever your mobile phone goes and so for an addict, it is available 24/7. And being automated, you can lose a lot, very quickly.

We heard of people losing their entire redundancy payout, hundreds of thousands of dollars, losing house deposits, or going into massive debt, in a matter of days or weeks. The newspapers tell us of those who commit fraud or theft to feed their gambling habit.

And the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have made it worse – total Australian expenditure on online gambling increased by $4 billion, or 72 per cent between 2019 and 2022.

This form of gambling goes with you wherever your mobile phone goes and so for an addict, it is available 24/7

Public attention has turned in recent months to the prevalence of gambling advertising on our televisions, smart-phones and computers. It seems difficult to escape it. We heard from one man who told us he was a gambling addict and how the prevalence of advertising meant he had to change his life. He loved watching sport, but he couldn’t go to a stadium, or even a local club game. He couldn’t use social media, he couldn’t listen to the radio in his car, he couldn’t watch TV, and despite excluding himself from gambling sites, his email was peppered with adverts and inducements trying to lure him to new gambling sites.

Gambling is a major public health issue in Australia. We have seen the range of negative consequences, that can include serious financial, legal, relationship and health related harms, not to mention the risk of homelessness and physical danger. Problem gambling is associated with an approximately four times higher risk of suicide.

And advertising is a major part of it. But there are so many other issues and if we are going to seriously address the harm of online gambling then we need to have a comprehensive public health approach that addresses direct harm as well as the advertising. The terms of the Inquiry also looked at gambling-like features in children’s games that normalise gambling to the next generation.

It was sometimes harrowing to hear personal experiences and the impact of problem gambling on family members. The evidence was much valued and very powerful.  But it was important that it be heard, that they be heard.

One bereaved mother’s evidence has stayed with me. She said “the gambling industry is predicated on making us into losers. And no one is a better customer for them than an addict.”

The Report on the Inquiry has been released today and I urge the community to get behind the recommendations.

Louise Miller-Frost is Labor member for Boothby and a member of the online gambling inquiry committee