Labor’s last attempted crackdown on gambling harm was a spectacular failure.
The year was 2012. Julia Gillard’s minority government had struck a deal with Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie to allow poker machine punters to set limits on their losses before starting a gambling session.
But the deal collapsed after the clubs industry began putting up posters of Labor MPs in poker machine venues, accusing them of trying to spoil people’s fun.
Labor backed down, reduced to a quivering wreck by the power of the gambling lobby. It was so spooked that it was willing to welsh on a deal with a key crossbencher while governing without a parliamentary majority.
That bitter experience helps explain Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s reluctance to heed calls from his own side of politics for a major crackdown to shield children from relentless betting advertisements during sporting broadcasts.
