The changes will prohibit gambling adverts during live sports broadcasts, be they on television, radio or streamed online. The ban will apply starting five minutes before a live sports event begins and will last until five minutes after the match finishes, or until 8:30pm, whichever comes sooner.
Fifield insists that the ban will ensure "a clear and practical zone for families and children to watch live sport.” The ban retains the existing exemptions for lotteries and race betting operators, because no child has ever grown up to become a race betting or lottery addict.
To assuage broadcasters’ concerns over the loss of gambling advertising revenue, the government will abolish annual broadcast license fees. As for the nation’s bookmakers, they get squat to compensate them for the loss of their ability to promote their products during the actual events on which much of their business model relies.
The advertising restriction is but the latest indignity recently foisted on Australia’s betting industry, including bans on wagering on credit and offering sign-up bonuses, as well as stricter enforcement of existing bans on online in-play betting, poker and casino products.
Source: GMB / Calvinayre.com
