Jesse Murphy, a former gambler who placed more than 15,000 bets worth nearly $1 million, received $43,700 in bonus bets from a single company over just over two years before he quit. His VIP manager routinely supplied free tickets to AFL and horse racing events, along with free food and alcohol, between 2019 and 2024. Murphy says he felt compelled to stay in touch with his handler to maintain access to benefits and offers.
Government's limited restrictions on inducements
The Albanese government this week passed a bill that places limited restrictions on the marketing of inducements, ignoring a bipartisan recommendation from a June 2023 parliamentary inquiry led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy (no relation to Jesse Murphy) that called for a total ban on inducements "without delay." The final form of the bill, which passed the Senate on Wednesday night, does not include a ban on VIP managers rewarding gamblers with free gifts that disappear when their bets stop.
Communications Minister Anika Wells says the government will stop "the most toxic" form of inducements. However, critics describe the changes as "window dressing," "minor tweaks," and "piecemeal amendments." Murphy remains unconvinced: "If these laws were in place at the start of my journey, I have no confidence they would have made my experience any different or any easier."
Self-regulation and industry oversight questioned
One of the government's changes requires gambling companies to identify "high risk" customers and bans them from being pushed inducements. The industry will be consulted on what "high risk" means and will monitor this themselves. Liberal MP Andrew Wallace, who crossed the floor to vote against the bill, says this is like putting "Dracula in charge of the blood bank." Industry lobbyists strongly reject this criticism, saying they are already tightly regulated and legally compelled to limit harm.
The Northern Territory government, which regulates most online bookmakers, already bans them from sending inducements to people showing signs of distress. However, this has not stopped the flow of inducements, including to a man who "binge gambled" $40,000 in an 11-hour session and was assigned a VIP manager. A senior gambling insider unable to comment publicly said: "Bad actors are already ignoring these laws in the Northern Territory."
Coronial inquest highlights inducement dangers
In May, lawyers for Australia's biggest gambling companies appeared at a coronial inquest into the death of Kyle Hudson, a Melbourne man who gambled $895,733 online in the four years from his 18th birthday to the day he took his own life. The inquest was told that Hudson was repeatedly drawn back into gambling by inducements, receiving 489 inducements from the time he opened his account until the day he died. The companies said he was "betting within limits" and never met their highest risk threshold.
Associate professor Sean Cowlishaw, an expert in gambling harm who gave evidence in the inquest, said the government's changes to inducements were a small improvement but ultimately weak. "I don't think the changes are going to make any substantive difference to most people in terms of reducing harms, including suicide risks. I just can't believe they haven't gone harder on inducements, it was such low hanging fruit for them," Cowlishaw says.
Former addicts and advocates decry missed opportunity
Kate, whose name has been withheld for privacy reasons, says her 24-year-old brother ended his life in the middle of a crippling gambling addiction. She has appeared before two parliamentary inquiries into gambling and addressed politicians in Canberra, urging them to adopt the Murphy review's recommendations. "This bill doesn't touch the surface," Kate says.
Mark Kempster, who lost $100,000 and accessed his superannuation due to gambling addiction, now works for the Alliance for Gambling Reform. He says the bill's prohibition of gambling companies sending inducements to people within 14 days of their account being created, or within 90 days of coming off the national self-exclusion register BetStop, "will do absolutely nothing to stop the companies from preying on people." Kempster questions: "Why are these inducements suddenly safe for people to receive on day 15?"
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the changes would "meaningfully increase protections for those who most need it" and "across the board, will make an enormous difference." However, Jesse Murphy worries the changes won't stop another generation of young men falling into addiction. "It would take away the shiny, dangling carrot that lures us in beyond our control. For me, that would have been a real sign that people were being put first," Murphy says.
Those pushing for tougher laws fear the government's appetite for further reforms will be nonexistent once these changes pass the Senate. As the coroner prepares to deliver findings into Hudson's death, Cowlishaw says: "If this is the response, it's going to delay significant reforms for potentially another generation. This was the opportunity to do something proportional to the risk."
