Charlotte Wilson of casinoshub.com said, “gambling is a worldwide pastime, but Australia is one of the leading nations with millions of players.” The question we aim to answer now is how did gambling become not just one of the main sources of entertainment, but also a cultural tradition in Australia.
Gambling Is Part of Australia’s History
Perhaps it would help to examine the significance of online slot machines and other games of chance in Australian history if we wanted to know why gambling has become such a popular form of entertainment there. Australians have a long history of gambling, and it’s fascinating to trace how their beliefs and customs have shaped the games they play and the legal frameworks within which they operate.
Most sports in Australian history were open to betting, including cockfighting, dogfighting, horse racing, and athletic competitions. When you combine them with raffles and lotteries and tailor them to a tiny population at the very start of their new country, you have a foolproof method of establishing a steadfast part of their culture.
Perhaps this explains why local Australian authorities have taken a lenient stance toward enforcing the law on gamblers, despite involvement and influence from Commonwealth interests to regulate, restrict, or even abolish gaming.
Gamblers, for their part, have figured out methods to engage in their de facto national sport that doesn’t involve the prying eyes of cultural puritans and moralists. In 1973, the Wrest Point Hotel on the island of Tasmania became home to Australia’s first legal casino as a result of efforts to circumvent religious objections on the continent.
Australian Gambling Legislation Favors the Gambler
Slot machines, or pokies as they are more often known in Australia, have been more popular in recent decades along with other mechanical games of chance. Online slots have quickly risen to prominence as one of Australia’s most popular forms of gambling since the introduction of the internet. However, the passage of the Interactive Gaming Act in 2001 gave the government greater authority over internet gambling than ever before. IGA aimed to regulate the provider’s effect on the player without criminalizing gambling per se in response to growing worries about the public’s mental health.
Because of this, iGaming companies risk legal repercussions if they provide gambling services to Australian customers, but they are not subject to any such consequences if they provide the same services to customers outside of Australia. The fact that players were not subject to any repercussions for their actions stands out among the act’s other notable provisions. Plus, Australians don’t have to pay taxes on their gambling earnings since the government views it as a hobby.
More freedom for players to enjoy iGaming within a secure environment is something the Australian gaming regulators are continuously striving towards. As a consequence of this mentality, the number of gaming establishments and service providers rose significantly throughout the nation. There are hundreds of online casinos that cater to Australian gamers, taking advantage of or exploiting various regulatory gaps to do so.
Gambling Advertisements Rule the Media
Due in large part to the pervasiveness of gambling depictions in all forms of Australian media, especially television and the internet, gambling is an ingrained element of Australian society.
Advertising, whether on television or the Internet, is crucial for any company to succeed in today’s media-centric society. In this day and age, it’s impossible to turn on a television or browse the web without being bombarded with commercials hawking anything from pet food to technology to home goods.
However, most of those adverts will be related to gambling if you’re in Australia. The Australian gambling and betting sector has a stranglehold on the country’s advertising market, whether it be a sportsbook operator like Ladbrokes or Sportsbet or a casino like Star or Crown. According to a new analysis by the Nielsen Research Institute, Australian gambling companies spent a record-breaking $287.2 million advertising gaming in 2021, a rise of almost 200 percent from 2011. More specifically, the survey indicated that over 150 adverts advertising sportsbooks or casino games were displayed during the prime-time family-watching hour in Australia, which is 18:00 to 20:30.
Considering Netflix just released in Australia a lower membership tier that includes advertisements, it seems that even Netflix will become a playground for gambling marketing. Although the entertainment giant has announced that it would not let gambling advertisements on its platform,
Google had previously claimed the same thing and is now rescinding the restriction in various locations. Three-quarters of 8- to 16-year-olds in a 2016 survey financed by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation were able to identify at least one firm that provided gambling services, and 25% could identify more than three such companies. The kids interviewed also shared their belief that games of chance are an integral aspect of any sport.
There’s no way anything that a country’s populace encounters at such a young age won’t become ingrained in that society.
Conclusion
It’s not hard to see how a population will come to see gambling as a sacred cultural practice if their nation has a long history with wagering, current laws that make it easier for them to bet, and their media services promote it on a regular basis. Gambling, for better or worse, is now as common as barbecuing prawns for the Christmas holiday in Australia.
