Page 1510 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 June 2022
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(c) the regulation of online gambling and television advertising (including sports betting, special events and horse racing) is the responsibility of the Commonwealth;
(d) the majority of online gambling companies are registered in the Northern Territory;
(e) the ACT Government is working with the Commonwealth and state and territory governments to provide a harmonised approach to the regulation of online gambling through the National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering;
(f) to provide a fairer taxation regime based on the location of the consumer rather than the location of the operator, most Australian states have implemented a point of consumption tax;
(g) in 2019, the Betting Operations Tax was introduced in the ACT. This is a 15 percent point of consumption tax payable by all betting operators in the ACT;
(h) in 2019, 7.7 percent of the ACT’s adult population bet on sports and special events within 12 months. Of those people, 38.5 percent were classified as at-risk gamblers, of which 3.2 percent were problem gamblers;
(i) the COVID pandemic lockdowns saw prolific advertising by the online gambling industry, with studies finding increases in online gambling and the numbers of Australians who opened a betting account during the pandemic;
(j) gambling has become a large part of sport in Australia, largely due to increased and normalised advertising that targets certain groups in the community; and
(k) more needs to be done to specifically address the harm that comes from online gambling in the ACT community; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) continue to work with and advocate to the Commonwealth and state and territory governments on the implementation of the National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering;
(b) conduct a review of the online gambling and advertising market and the impacts of this on the ACT;
(c) investigate ACT revenue sources that can be used for harm minimisation activities for the ACT community that target online gambling;
(d) consider ways to raise community awareness (particularly targeting groups in the population susceptible to online gambling harm) around the risks of online gambling; and
(e) report back to the Assembly by December 2023.
This motion looks at the ways the ACT government can reduce harm from online gambling in our community. I know that Dr Paterson would be proud to be here herself today if she was able to—unfortunately, she is ill—because it would give her the opportunity to bring together her former career as a researcher in the field of gambling and her role as an MLA. Dr Paterson’s time as a researcher instilled in her
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