Australia to Implement Taglines Warning of Harm in Gambling Ads

While tobacco packaging warning messages eventually got upgraded to graphic and disturbing images of tobacco-related harms, online gambling ads in Australia are getting an upgrade of their own. This will put gambling ads closer to tobacco than to alcohol on the scale of how strict advertising restrictions are going to be, so it’s a huge change.

Taglines to Warn of Gambling Harm in Online Ads

Australia’s parliamentary inquiry into online gambling and gambling harm is continuing to bear fruit, with the latest development being the introduction of advertising taglines on online gambling ads. This will force operators to inform customers about the dangers and harms of gambling in their ads. There are several proposed variations, and upcoming changes in legislation are expected to require a full 12-month rotation to avoid message fatigue.

If this comes to fruition, it will most likely be the very first set of messages that the Australian government has put together and standardized across the country. Up until now, the familiar slogan for TV ads, for example, was “Gamble responsibly.” which is more akin to what alcohol ads are required to include on a global scale.

The new taglines are much more striking and include much clearer warning language. They were designed based on extensive behavioral research and have a specific focus. Some of the slogans include “Chances are you’re about to lose.”, “You win some. You lose more.” and “What are you prepared to lose today? Set a deposit limit.” with the rest following roughly the same tone with a similar message.

Gambling High on the Public’s List of Concerns

While the inquiry began on September 15, Australians have been asking for changes in gambling ads for quite some time now. The Australia Institute conducted polling research late this summer, asking people how they felt about TV ads for certain products, gambling being one of them. According to the results, 71% of respondents agree that gambling ads should be banned on TV.

The public was ready to express its opinions directly to the government as well, with Australian MPs opening the doors for personal statements by sufferers of gambling harm. The idea behind the parliamentary inquiry is to make sure that companies such as Ladbrokes, bet365, Sportsbet, and others, are being properly regulated, and whether the potential for harm to people can be further reduced.

The motivation behind developing these gambling ad taglines carries a very similar sentiment to that of tobacco packaging warning messages across most of the world, with Australia going a step further and entirely banning tobacco product ads across the country. However, there might still be a future lesson to learn from the change in attitude towards tobacco product ads, as the industry observed that taglines alone didn’t work well enough for what some countries strived to achieve.

Alcohol, by the way, was also much further down the list in the poll, sitting at 51% of people agreeing on TV ads for it should be banned, below even junk food, ads for which were wanted off the TV by 66% of respondents. This means that Aussies are more likely to regulate gambling and junk food ads than alcohol, which is incredibly strange, as some culturally iconic foods in Australia can themselves be considered junk food. At any rate, gambling harm is no laughing matter, and the population has sorely been lacking support from the government, with problem gambling rates more than doubling in the last 10 years.