Government Bets Against the Gambling Industry
New legislation set to take effect in 2027 will place some of the toughest restrictions yet on gambling advertising in Australia, aimed at limiting the industry's grip on everyday life.
Gambling advertising has become one of the most visible and contested categories in Australian media, woven into live sport, prime-time TV, and daily commutes. This legislation is the government's clearest signal yet that the current level of exposure is no longer acceptable.
The Legislation Changes
Banned: Ads during live broadcasts of sport, and radio ads during school pickup and drop-off times.
Capped: TV gambling ads limited to 3 per hour.
Age-gated: Online ads only shown to users 18 and over who are logged in. Non-logged-in users are opted out by default; logged-in users can opt out themselves.
No celebrity affiliation: Celebrities and sports stars can no longer promote or be affiliated with gambling or odds sites.
No sponsorships: Gambling sponsorship of venues, players, and officials will no longer be allowed.
The government estimates this will reduce gambling activity by $62.8M, or 0.8% of annual gambler investment nationally.
Our Take
A step in the right direction, but a small one. An 0.8% reduction against how deeply embedded gambling advertising is in Australian sport and media tells its own story: this legislation limits visibility, not access. The product remains one tap away regardless of what's on screen during the game.
Access is the real issue. Australians already hold some of the highest gambling losses per capita in the world. Restricting where and when ads appear addresses exposure, not the ease with which people can gamble in the first place. Harsher, more structural change will be needed if the goal is to meaningfully shift that outcome.
The sponsorship and celebrity bans are the most consequential parts of this. Removing gambling brands from venues, jerseys, and athlete endorsements cuts at the normalisation of gambling as part of sport culture, arguably more than the ad caps do. This is the piece of the legislation likely to reshape the category fastest.
This sits outside our usual category mix, and so the impact on our day-to-day operations is limited. That said, we'll continue to watch how it reshapes media investment across sport, broadcast, and digital as 2027 approaches. Reach out if you'd like to talk through what this shift could mean for your category or media plan.
