Have you noticed the surge in teal, voices of, and independent advertisements recently? They were massive in the football finals season and have surged again in the lead up to today’s Melbourne Cup.
The ads are all over social media and TV, especially streaming services.
I might get the precise wording wrong, but they go something like this:
“Have a crack, Albo, have a crack. Use the BigMoney app and you don’t have to back just one runner. You can back all of the runners you select.
“Fossil Fuelled, Pharma Lap, White Shoes, Retail Fodder, Big Food, Media Mogul. You can boost your winnings by choosing all of them with the BigMoney app.”
But let me give you some inside knowledge. Fossil Fuelled is getting a bit tired these days and might not make the finishing line. Beware of Big Food. It is very hard to see the name and number on the livery. It is in very small type and usually grey on light grey. Also, it is hard to tell if Big Food has got the ingredients for a wholesome race.
And Pharma Lap seems very big-hearted, but always runs on self-interest, often colluding with Pharma Guild to befuddle the ordinary punter.
By the way, these two runners are not to be confused with Small Farmer which was obliterated when the international Conglomerate AG stable substituted him with Fine Cotton.
Nonetheless, all of these runners get a place at every important meeting and usually get a win of one sort or the other.
A further tip: don’t waste your time with outsiders. Public Interest, Protect the Vulnerable, and Moral Compass have not had a place at any important meeting for 40 years, let alone a win.
Small wonder, punters are getting sick of everything turning into a two-horse race.
I don’t know about you, but every time these advertisements come on, I am sickened and get reminded of Albo’s and Labor’s spinelessness on gambling advertising and how beholden they are to the donations from gambling, hotel, and media interests. That’s why I thought they were advertisements for independents, teals, and voices for, and why it surprised me that they were not properly authorised as political advertising.
Silly me.
But let’s put the allegory aside for now. There is a serious issue here.
Last week Roy Morgan published the Problem Gambling Severity Index showing that 3,492,000 Australians (16.2 per cent) are either problem gamblers or at-risk gamblers.
A steady increase in problem gambling over the past few years has coincided with unabated gambling advertising.
The gaming “industry” does not thrive on lots of people having a harmless little flutter as they might today on the Melbourne Cup. Rather its lifeblood is the steady trickle of lots of money from a few hapless addicts who bet more than they can afford to lose.
Morgan’s index says, “There are now 622,000 Australians that fit the profile as ‘problem gamblers’, up a significant 111,000 (22per cent) from a year ago, and up 230,000 from two years ago.”
It coincides with the upsurge in advertising. Businesses advertise because it works. In this case it attracts people to gamble. Big industries bribe political parties with donations because it works. It obviously works in the case of gambling because more than two years after a parliamentary committee led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy called for curbs on gambling advertisements nothing has been done.
Among all Australians aged above 18, the Morgan research shows: 8.6 per cent say they “have bet more than they could really afford to lose”; 7.9 per cent “go back on another day to try to win back the money they lost’’; 6.9 per cent “needed to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling of excitement”; and 5.9 per “feel they might have a problem with gambling”.
“Problem gambler” means bankruptcy, family violence, and even suicide.
Research by Federation University in 2023 examined the Victorian Suicide Register which showed at least 184 suicides were directly related to gambling and 17 other suicides were by “affected others” such as family members between 2009 and 2016.
No doubt the suicides are much higher now because nothing has been done to stop the saturation advertising.
There are a lot of decent, good people in Parliament. People who have gone into politics to improve people’s lives.
I cannot understand why at least those I have had interactions with and I know first-hand to be decent human beings have not marched into Albo’s office and said: “Enough. We do not want or need gambling blood money”: Katy Gallagher, Tanya Plibersek, Andrew Leigh, and others. They must, like me, be sickened by this gambling scourge which has driven people (many quite young) to suicide.
It is almost as bad as Robodebt, which drove some welfare recipients to suicide.
True, the Labor Government is not the architect of the gambling “industry”, but as the saying goes, “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”
Good people like those mentioned above and Jim Chalmers, Penny Wong, and Chris Bowen and, and, and. Good people doing nothing. That is precisely what is happening now, and they have to accept responsibility for the evil.
Fixing things is what Australians want and expect from their politicians. But they are not getting it from the major parties.
As it happened, I was listening to the Senators’ statements segment on the parliamentary broadcast on Wednesday. It was typical.
Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson carried on about gender and sexual orientation. Labor Senator Corinne Mulholland gave a huge plug for her party because of a standard government grant to a non-profit organisation. Green Senator David Shoebridge expressed concern for indigenous populations in Bangladesh. The only one addressing real issues was Independent Senator David Pocock who in a few crisp sentences outlined a compelling case for bringing dental care into Medicare – something that affects all Australians.
Small wonder he topped the ACT Senate vote – and other independents like him are attracting more of the vote every election.
So back to my allegory.
Go on Albo, have a crack. Bring Public Interest, I’m for the Vulnerable, and Moral Compass to the starting gate. Let them have a win. Get rid of these gambling advertisements and apps that cruelly exploit vulnerable people.
And if you don’t, make sure you look at the ad that follows all the gambling ads these days. It reads something like, “Chances are you will lose. Think carefully about how you spend your political capital.”
Crispin Hull
This article first appeared in The Canberra Times and other Australian media on 4 November 2025.