Australia Orders The Operators To Warn Bettors About The Harm Of Gambling In The Ads

The Australian government has submitted a list of mandatory messages that gambling operators will be required to use in their advertising campaigns. This measure is directly aimed at warning bettors about the potential harm of gambling.

The Big Reform

Australian government, as well as the state and territory governments, designed these mandatory gambling harm alerts in collaboration. This project is a part of an updated National Consumer Protection Framework.

All legal gambling platforms operating in the country will have to include special warnings about potential gambling harm in their ads. The authorities have designed 7 taglines:

• “Chances are, you’re about to lose”;
• “Think. Is this a bet you really want to place?”;
• “What’s gambling really costing you?”;
• “What are you prepared to lose today? Set a deposit limit”;
• “Imagine what you could be buying instead”;
• “You win some. You lose more”;
• “What are you really gambling with?”.

Other requirements

All gambling operators must use at least one of these taglines in all forms of their advertisements. Five taglines are available for use on TV, video and radio, while digital, website, in-app and social media ads have six available taglines. Bookies can not use the last tagline (“You win some. You lose more”) in a written form.

Moreover, operators will also have to make a special call to action right after using a tagline: “For free and confidential support call 1 800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au”.

The Deadline Is Set

The authorities were designing these measures from August to October, 2022. The government established a transition period from October 31, 2022 to March 30, 2023 right after approving the reform. All operators will have to apply innovations during the prescribed period in order to avoid sanctions up to license deprivation.

Source: https://igamingbusiness.com. Article: Australia mandates new safer gambling messaging, 2022.