Safe Sport Watchdogs in Australia Flag Betting Risks as Pokies Debate Intensifies

08 November 2026

Australia's sports watchdogs are training their sights on the rapid rise of online sports betting and its potential to undermine the integrity of Australian sports as gambling addiction spreads. This dual focus reflects intensifying public health and integrity concerns around two forms of gambling that are increasingly viewed as dangerous products, not just entertainment.

The executive director of Safe Sport Australia, Sam Crowe, told the Australian Financial Review this month that "the risks of corruption and match-fixing have gone up not only because of how accessible sports betting has become, but also because of how much gambling is now folded into how sports are marketed and consumed."

Crowe argued that the industry needs to more strictly curtail gambling's access to Australian sporting houses, particularly as more low-profile league matches attract hundreds of thousands of dollars in wagers on new online prediction platforms. The Guardian estimated in October 2023 that $350,000 had been wagered on a single low-profile women's cricket match, raising real questions about match integrity.

But Crowe acknowledged that an integrity push risks leaving harmless bettors as collateral damage when changes to safer gambling licence conditions make placing legal bets much harder. Under snap reforms flagged in July 2023, the federal government would cap TV gambling ads at three in the evening and ban all gambling ads on sporting broadcasts during that period, while mandating online sites to screen for age and provide opt-out settings.

Safer gambling advocates say the reforms, if implemented, would still leave Australians dangerously vulnerable to excessive bets, with no protection from catastrophic losses on sports bets or pokies. Nearly 8 billion dollars are lost each year at Australian pokie venues, far more than sports betting, and Crowe urged that sports leagues and regulators should be more focused on standing up to venue owners and pokie machine owners for the way they market to sports fans.

An Australian research study published this month in Gambling Research Journal found that companies leveraging sports marketing and gambling have "constructed narratives to present pokies as harmless entertainment, consistent with existing sports consumption and socialisation practices in Australia" but have also used "aggressive promotional tactics around new sports events for online gambling to grow their sports-betting customer base".

Crowe rejected the argument that pulling back on sports betting marketing was a knee-jerk reaction to growing support for gambling advertising bans. Australia is "not some utopia where no betting-related integrity risks exist," he said. "There are over 370 Aussie players indirectly sponsored by gambling firms and major codes benefit tens of millions from sponsorships. We're overdue for an overhaul."

Pokies As "Public Health crisis"

Australia's approach to gambling regulation has historically been relatively lax, said the Grattan Institute in a landmark report published last week, gambling regime failure to go far enough to prevent harm. "Gambling problems in Australia are at a record high, with pokies and online sports betting driving much of that," said the Grattan lead author, Danika Kershaw.

"What happens in Australia stands out as a case study for what a lack of targeted policy can do," Kershaw told The Guardian. "Pokies are concentrated in the most disadvantaged communities, and online gambling is now our most damaging form."

An analysis by researchers at Central Queensland University estimated that about half of Australia's gambling problems trace to pokies. They analyzed 2022 national data that classed 82% of fortnightly pokies players as being at risk of gambling-related harm, with 45% meeting the criteria for "high-risk" or "problem" gambling.

The research was part of mounting evidence that pokies need to be classed as a public health issue - that's how governments frame things like tobacco, alcohol and red meat. Australia needs to acknowledge pokies as a public health problem, subject to health and medical research and policy.

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"There's a real disadvantage to viewing all gambling alike, as we still do," said Central Queensland's research director Andrew Blackman, who spearheaded the analysis. "We need to stop putting pokies on par with lotteries, horserace betting and philanthropic community gaming."

Blackman and his team looked at data from face-to-face interviews completed by 27,000 Australians in 2022, some of whom were tracked over a period of months to provide deeper insights on the scale of gambling-related harm. It found that "Any exposure to self-reported harm from pokies increased the odds of problem gambling by 11 times, compared to non-pokies gamblers."

The report attributed much of the harm to the structural features of pokies. Dating back to when they first became popular, the machines are engineered with sensory features that make it easier for players to stay in the moment, like "losses disguised as wins" and ultrasound sounds that make every spin exciting.

The report cites Monash University scholars who warned last year that pokies were aggressively prioritized by governments and venue operators because they are "more highly addictive," "delivering a yield six times higher than other gambles" and "mainly hurting disadvantaged people."

In the same period, academics studying online sports betting said the technology contributed to equivalent risk, with features that encourage quick, continuous betting and odds that favor underdogs. The online gambling industry in general would spend hundreds of millions to make the experience more exciting and more appetizing, making it a concern. Nearly 85% of Australians' $29 billion in annual sports betting losses now come from online sports betting.

Some lawmakers are now considering placing slots in that same category and banning gambling ads altogether. But neither proponents or reform advocates think there's an appetite for that among most of the government, which is at the mercy of the sports industry as a major campaign donor.

The Grattan Institute itself laid out a large-scale restructuring of gambling regulation in its report, while also advocating that any credible reform needed to be coordinated between states and largely driven nationally. It called for measures like mandatory loss limits, pre-commitment measures and for industry giants to yield some power and revenue to prevent harm.

Sam Crowe questioned both industry and government patience to make a push. Pokies venues are "primarily in the most disadvantaged suburbs, and they're a structural feature of far too many communities, taking billions out of the pockets of the vulnerable," he said.

"It's not just that they're barely regulated, because they also provide a huge revenue stream for governments that get the revenue. Another industry that gives them tax benefits and robust public relations, and influence over politicians".

"I wish I could tell you when a shift would happen," said Crowe. "But at least we know what it needs to look like. They're making too much money, hurting too many people, and it's hopelessly impossible to regulate without a commitment from the big players. You have to decide they're not okay and take big steps to fix it."