Addiction sits at the heart of Australia’s growing problem with gambling.
But it’s not just the three million Australians estimated to engage in harmful gambling who are dealing with its effects.
The real addicts are state governments, which collect about $10 billion a year in gaming taxes — about 6% of their total revenue. In the Northern Territory, a jurisdiction with a significant gaming problem, the government relies on gambling taxes for 12.1% of its revenue.
And, as Anthony Albanese noted in an ABC radio interview on Friday, poker machines are administered by state governments, not the Commonwealth.
This explains why the prime minister is starting to sound cranky about widespread criticism of the legislation his government introduced to parliament last week imposing modest limits on television advertising by bookies, particularly during sport broadcasts.
