Albanese government cowers in the face of gambling reform

There are few areas of public policy in Australia that represent a more striking failure of political will than gambling. It could be argued that fossil fuels are even worse, but it’s a close call. Australian governments, state and federal, collectively represent a disastrous failure when it comes to regulating gambling; it is a failure in which governments cede control to powerful interest groups and allow serious harm to the populations they are charged with protecting.

Recent exposure of the risky nature of online gambling regulation by Steve Cannane Four Corners – regulation so inadequate it would be laughable except for its tragic consequences – adds to a long list of examples of the major parties’ outright refusal to rein in gambling or establish institutions that could effectively regulate an industry that can do so much harm at both individual and societal levels.