"Chances are you're about to lose." Australia's New Hard Hitting Gambling Messages

After a period of wide consultation, Australia’s federal government has mandated a raft of new safer gambling messages to complement the great rise in online wagering. However, these aren’t your usual stock messages. Australia’s aiming for something a litter closer to the bone…

On 2nd November, Amanda Rishworth, the Social Services Minister, laid out plans to sharpen Australia’s responsible gambling messaging the accompanies all forms of online gaming advertising.

The traditional message of “Gamble Responsibly” tagged onto the end of TV, online and print advertisements was not really cutting through.

“Online wagering is fast becoming an increasing source of gambling and an increasing source of loss for people,” Rishworth stated. “We have consulted widely and, importantly, we have used evidence to inform these taglines.”

The Australian Government estimates that the nation has the highest annual gambling loss per capita than any other country in the world at $1,276 a person. Research figures also show that a higher proportion of online gamblers have a problem compared to gamblers at large in the country, 3.9% compared to 1.23%.

In order to step up the response to these figures, Rishworth announced that a slew of new, more frank and unusual messages would accompany gambling advertising from 2023. Furthermore, companies would be obliged to rotate the messages they use in order to combat “message fatigue.”

These new messages, part of a scheme that came out of a large government inquiry, are supposedly based on considerable behavioural research.

What are Australia’s new, hard-hitting responsible gambling taglines?

• Chances are you’re about to lose.
• You win some. You lose more.
• Imagine what you could be buying instead.
• What are you prepared to lose today? Set a deposit limit.
• What’s gambling really costing you?
• Think. Is this a bet you really want to place?
• What are you really gambling with?

The question is, is Australia’s bold and punchy approach going to succeed? It’s certainly innovative and may make players sit up and take note. But ultimately, will the population just see this a governmental gimmick? A way to use words and not actions? Either way, it is certainly a novel approach.

For more information about responsible gambling in the UK, check out our news post on last month’s Safer Gambling Week 2022. You’ll find lots of tools and resources that address many people’s gambling concerns.

If you are looking for instant support, right here, right now, then head over to the GamCare website.