Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, I present the committee's report, incorporating a dissenting report, entitled Regulation of the use of financial services such as credit cards and digital wallets for online gambling in Australia.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—Online gambling is the fastest-growing section of the gambling market. Evidence to the inquiry identified substantial harm resulting from the ability to gamble online with credit. To be clear, this harm results primarily from online wagering with credit, not using credit to purchase lottery tickets and scratchies. The use of credit cards to pay for gambling can extend the pool of money that a person can gamble beyond their savings. This can lead to extreme financial hardship, loss of employment or business failure, bankruptcy, relationship breakdown, mental illness and homelessness.

As the Australian government has already recognised, close to a quarter of a million Australians already experience significant harm from online wagering. This harm is not restricted to the individual gambler. The impacts spill out and affect family, friends and the broader community. The committee acknowledges the heartbreaking personal stories contained in several organisational submissions and witness testimony. There was $225 billion gambled in Australia in 2018-19, and $25 billion of that was lost in lost gambling. The committee is recommending gathering of further data on the size and growth of the online gambling market in Australia, online gambling with credit and the extent and nature of the associated harms.

The committee welcomes the fact that the industry peak body for online wagering, Responsible Wagering Australia, changed their stance during the inquiry and now in fact support a ban. The committee welcomes that, and I thank them for that change of heart. The committee also notes that Tabcorp did not oppose a ban on the use of credit for online gambling.

The committee considered policy options for blocking credit cards for online gambling services: that do not affect lotteries, both for profit and not-for-profit; that do not affect debit payment mechanisms; that would minimise credit card credit passing through digital wallets; and that create consistency between the online and in-venue environments. The committee considers that legislation to require gambling service providers to block credit cards for online gambling using bank identification numbers is the most attractive option. It has formed this view because it is relatively simple to implement and limits the regulatory burden on the banking, finance and payment sectors, it's consistent with other bans on gambling with credit in physical venues and it provides a straightforward way to exempt lotteries while banning other more harmful forms of online gambling with credit.

The committee recommends that the government legislate to ban online gambling service providers of wagering services but not lotteries as defined in section 4 of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. This recommendation would complement other policy measures in the National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering and would simply bring online wagering into line with all other forms of in-venue gambling. I urge the government to implement these reforms. They are sensible, and they will change and save lives.

I want to thank all submitters to the inquiry, I want to thank all members of the committee for the good nature with which they conducted themselves, particularly the deputy chair, and I want to thank the secretariat for their diligence, assistance and professionalism.

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