Australians are well known for their love of gambling and, not surprisingly, the Australian gambling markets is one of the most robust gambling market on the planet. But Australians are in the midst of a national debate over whether or not there’s such a thing as too much gambling, especially when it comes to sports betting.
One of the biggest results of that national debate is a series of regulations aimed at slowing down the continual barrage of advertisements from sports books promoting live betting during televised sports broadcasts. Those regulations include a ban on sports betting related ads during broadcasts with starting times between 5 a.m and 8:30 p.m. Now regulators at the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) are looking to extend that ban to include events that are live streamed over the internet.
The ACMA made the announcement regarding live-streamed sports this week as a sort of addendum to the television regulations, which have only been in effect since March 30. It seems as though they forgot that any bill aimed at protecting children when they’re in front of a screen should also include the smaller screens, such as phones and computers, that children use the most.
In a statement to the press, ACMA Chair, Nerida O’Loughlin explained the situation saying:
The proposed rules will bring together a ‘safe zone’ across traditional and new media platforms, with a particular focus on when children are a part of the audience. They will make it clear to viewers, including parents, when gambling advertising is prohibited and extend other important restrictions into the online environment. The ACMA strongly encourages stakeholder submissions and reminds potentially affected online content service providers to prepare for implementation of the new rules.
As of this writing, these rules are still merely proposals, but if you were an Australia and you had to bet on the outcome of this regulatory discussion, you’d probably want to put your money on the ACMA.