‘A rite of passage’: How the gambling industry attracts young Aussies

Social media and targeted advertising expose young people to gambling. Video by Gwen Liu

Transcript

00:00I am a gambler. I'm big on using Sportsbet.

00:04Yeah, I see quite a few ads online.

00:07They're always putting their promotions on there

00:08and they've definitely worked in my case

00:11because, you know, I've seen them and been like,

00:12oh, OK, this is something, this seems like a good promotion.

00:15I'm going to try it.

00:16So, yeah, they know what they're doing and it definitely does work.

00:19Kids, when I go out to the schools,

00:22they can, straight off the bat, they can name three different

00:27types of agencies that you can bet through

00:29and they can even tell you what the agency is

00:33by the colours of the logo.

00:35It is so normalised now and it's scary that they actually see it

00:40as a rite of passage.

00:41They can't wait till they're actually old enough

00:44to legally bet on some sport as well.

00:48Traditionally, you would have people betting on your sport outcome,

00:52the races, but now we're seeing that there's more and more markets

00:56on things that might be appealing to young women,

00:58like reality TV shows, you know, the Super Bowl halftime show,

01:03Taylor Swift tickets, you know, lots of different things

01:06that might engage young people.

01:07And what that really means

01:08is that they might place a bet on a novelty market.

01:12But that means that they've downloaded the app

01:13and then they are open to receiving marketing

01:15that is more direct and personal,

01:17which may mean that they might bet on other things.