"We’ve done nothing wrong’: betting firms shift blame to parents,"

[Alphakilo]

I feel the gambling companies are partially right on blaming parents and ads companies who display their ads on platforms where kids usually visit without considering the consequences of their actions.

The betting companies do not deliberately put their ads on such platforms knowing fully well that there restrictions that could attract sanctions if flaunted so it is the place of a parent to monitor the sites their kids often visit in order to prohibit them from harmful contents on the internet

Cause there are chances that a child could stumble into such platform in the course of using the internet, the kids can as well meet strangers online that can lure them into those bad underage social habit as gamble

Kids these days get exposed early to smart phones and the Internet and parents might have no idea on the use of some apps because they aren't as tech savvy as these kids, so maybe it isn't the parents fault all the time to monitor their children but to inculcate good morals in them from an early age.

The gambling companies and apps that also allow these ads do so for money without thinking of the consequences or even putting age restrictions on their apps and this is why children can see what they aren't supposed to see anytime they go online and they do well to hide it from their parents who are so busy trying to make a living for them to have a better life.

[Sobz]

If the parent, the government, and even the casino operators were all responsible for creating awareness of responsible gambling and maintaining adequate standards that could prevent abnormal gambling situations, maybe a lot of people wouldn't have had challenges with how they gamble. We can't keep shifting blame to each other when everyone is expected to perform a particular role in helping through the campaign to prevent underage gambling.

Parents even try their best to give their kids the best protection.  Parents would tell their children gambling is bad while the casino will only tell the public to gamble responsibly with serious ads that can lure people to gamble with the assurance of winning big and mist times the government work with casino because of what they are gaining . If we should be blaming who is not helping is gambling operators. Parents are trying the best they can.  Kids dont always stay with their parent's forever,  they go out and they meet other people and they can do whatever they feel like to do.

[Mia Chloe]

~snip

At the end of the day, everyone is actually responsible for their actions. Parents should train their kids properly till they actually become of age to make their own decisions. Celebrities can do anything for money and as revenue so I'm not surprised at what ever agenda I see them push or service I see them promote.

You can't gamble according to your own free will and blame celebrities for advertising them ... That's actually a shear expression of irresponsibility in my own opinion. These people will attribute zero blame if they hit a jackpot.

[Alpha Marine]

There is only so much parents can do when gambling ads are everywhere.
The gambling casinos can also take the blame, but you can't really blame them. It is their job to make sure people see their ads. It is the job of the parents to control what their kids see. At the end of the day, you can't blame anybody.
If the country sees a way to regulate the gambling ads and make sure kids don't see them, then fine.
If the goal of the government is actually to protect underage children, then fine and good.

What I find funny is how politicians act like gambling companies are the devil. I don't understand the hypocrisy. I get it that the sector should be heavily regulated and underage children should be protected, but the way some politicians talk about gambling companies is funny.

[Davidvictorson]

I don't understand why they are shifting the blame to parents and the platforms running those ads. Aren't the casinos and gambling platforms paying to have their ads displayed on those platforms? IMO, parents and the platforms running those ads shouldn't be blamed for this, instead of making the blame one sided they should stop running gambling ads on platforms where children visits regularly to prevent them from getting exposed to gambling platforms and casinos.

In my estimation, i think that both parties are to blame including the government. Although, I must commend the government for the amazing job that they are doing so far with regards to gambling regulations.
The gambling industry are going as far as the government allows them to...now with the proposed new law of banning the use of celebrities in gambling ads, we can see that the government also has a role to play.
As for the parent, they need to pay more attention to what their kids do online, how they spend their money. Until the kids are out of the house, it is on the parents to protect their kids from harm and shield them from danger and that includes gambling at that age.

[Hispo]

I think there is actually a spectrum of responsibilities when comes to children and gambling, and this case does not seem to be the exception.
On one hand, casinos are never supposed to target children with their advertisement, in any way, shape or form; however on the other hand, there are parents who are undoubtedly very irresponsible with their children and do not pay enough attention to what they do on the internet.

Both casinos and parents have part of the responsibility when children manage to have access to gambling and betting services.
If I had children I would make sure to give them enough education, so they understand what gambling is and how it works in order give a slight advantage to the house.

[Shinpako09]

It's a normal reaction from parents to blame gambling ads or platforms. But then, in this era, whether they like it or not, you can see gambling ads in almost every event especially sports. Now, can parents stop their kids from watching sports? Or can they stop their kids from using smartphones? I don't think these two are possible unless they become very strict. But even so, there's still a high chance they will see or hear gambling ads and get exposed. Most likely, they will hear from other kids or overhear from an adult.

That shows, your kids will be exposed to gambling or gambling ads later on whether you like it or not. That's why educating at an early age is a must so they won't develop misconception about gambling.

[Dogedegen]

To Summarize the content of the article, it's about the growing dispute in Australia on who must be held accountable for gambling advertising that is reaching children, and there's an alleged that the betting companies are encourage vulnerable customers to become more compulsive. Some critics are saying that the reform that which was proposed is very weak to defeat the problem and seek that gambr ads be banned. What gave me a concern in all that was said is that kids listening to music on Spotify is being interrupted by gambling ads but the gambling representative is defending every accusations and shift blames to parents and the platforms that runs the ads, like the Spotify. Note that the Spotify has an advertising opt out option that users can decide to opt out of the kind of ads they don't want to see, such as gambling ads and that satisfies my concern.

My input/question: we have celebrities, creators of funny content and other niche, in different countries and these creators could also at some point do ads for offshore casinos, and the young ones who are always on their phone doom scrolling without parental guidance, they will see those ads because they are not restricted from watching videos of creators from other countries, so if the government of their own country have ban certain gambling ads in their country, did they also ban the creators from other countries from making promotional videos of offshore casinos? If government from countries A bans gambling ads by creators, can't the kids still see ads from creators in country x,y,z assuming their parents don't opt out of countries they don't want theie kids to see content from?

I see reasons to blame some parents for their negligence, because why would you put the whole blame on casinos and sportbooks and also the government meanwhile they are helping but some parents are not.

Gambling executives are denying any wrongdoing for children being exposed to betting advertising, shifting responsibility to parents and other platforms.

Senator David Pocock says Australians are sick and tired of the lies perpetuated by the gambling industry.

Multiple examples of children reciting advertisements and slogans of betting agencies after exposure to adverts during sporting events have been detailed at a Senate inquiry into Labor’s proposed gambling reforms.

https://educationhq.com/news/weve-done-nothing-wrong-betting-firms-shift-blame-to-parents-other-platforms-213277/

It is so strange to me that many people still don't know how these things happen and they get surprised at these statements or even angry. You do not seem to understand them either. There are only two options for the gambling executive:
1. Yes it is our fault.
2. No it is not our fault.

What do you think they should say, that it is their fault? They would get sued and lose a lot of money, and this admission of guilt would be used as evidence against them. They have to say it is not their fault, they have no other choice! It is the way that our legal systems work, everything is wrong and stop being surprised by things like that. The reality of this case is that everyone is at fault:
1. The gambling industry.
2. The advertisers.
3. The platforms.
4. The parents.

The difference will be who is responsible for how much, but every step of those 4 group has failed the children. In some cases we can argue that the parents are the least to blame because they can annoy their children and ban them from a platform, but then they will find the same gambling advertisements on another platform. This means that the issue must be solved in the other parts. Platforms must not deliver these ads to kids, advertisers must block ads that are tailored to kids. Actually all kinds of advertisements to kids should be banned, not even toy advertisement should be allowed. And the gambling industry should be punished if they ever try to target vulnerable groups. That combined approach has a chance to make some change.

[BigTarget]

we have celebrities, creators of funny content and other niche, in different countries and these creators could also at some point do ads for offshore casinos, and the young ones who are always on their phone doom scrolling without parental guidance, they will see those ads because they are not restricted from watching videos of creators from other countries, so if the government of their own country have ban certain gambling ads in their country, did they also ban the creators from other countries from making promotional videos of offshore casinos? If government from countries A bans gambling ads by creators, can't the kids still see ads from creators in country x,y,z assuming their parents don't opt out of countries they don't want theie kids to see content from?

I see reasons to blame some parents for their negligence, because why would you put the whole blame on casinos and sportbooks and also the government meanwhile they are helping but some parents are not.

As far as I remember, I think there was some news circulating some time back that Australia is going to ban online gambling ads, but I wonder why they haven't done that yet. If governments think that these things are becoming problematic, they should find some way to tackle it, maybe regulate the ads and platforms where they should be run if they want to keep kids and underaged away from them if their parents aren't able to do it.

To be honest, I would also not blame the platforms for this or even the government, because parents should be responsible enough and be able to keep their children away from things where they know they can possibly see or get into things that aren't suitable for their age. If you don't care about what your kids do with their phone or other devices, then you can't blame others for running their ads and promoting their businesses as long as those businesses are legally allowed by the government.

You also can't expect kids to do anything about it, because they don't know anything about this, but at least the parents should be more careful and responsible towards their kids, and besides, apps and other things often clarify that they are to be used by people above 16 or 18 years or age, but if parents allow their kids to use them without any restrictions, I guess they can be blamed for any damage.

[lombok]

we have celebrities, creators of funny content and other niche, in different countries and these creators could also at some point do ads for offshore casinos, and the young ones who are always on their phone doom scrolling without parental guidance, they will see those ads because they are not restricted from watching videos of creators from other countries, so if the government of their own country have ban certain gambling ads in their country, did they also ban the creators from other countries from making promotional videos of offshore casinos? If government from countries A bans gambling ads by creators, can't the kids still see ads from creators in country x,y,z assuming their parents don't opt out of countries they don't want theie kids to see content from?

I see reasons to blame some parents for their negligence, because why would you put the whole blame on casinos and sportbooks and also the government meanwhile they are helping but some parents are not.

As far as I remember, I think there was some news circulating some time back that Australia is going to ban online gambling ads, but I wonder why they haven't done that yet. If governments think that these things are becoming problematic, they should find some way to tackle it, maybe regulate the ads and platforms where they should be run if they want to keep kids and underaged away from them if their parents aren't able to do it.

To be honest, I would also not blame the platforms for this or even the government, because parents should be responsible enough and be able to keep their children away from things where they know they can possibly see or get into things that aren't suitable for their age. If you don't care about what your kids do with their phone or other devices, then you can't blame others for running their ads and promoting their businesses as long as those businesses are legally allowed by the government.

You also can't expect kids to do anything about it, because they don't know anything about this, but at least the parents should be more careful and responsible towards their kids, and besides, apps and other things often clarify that they are to be used by people above 16 or 18 years or age, but if parents allow their kids to use them without any restrictions, I guess they can be blamed for any damage.

In order to ensure that children do not come into contact with any promotional information relating to online gambling, there needs to be close supervision that begins from home. Just by depending on any laws made by the government regarding regulation is simply not enough to prevent the proliferation of advertisements in smart phones.

It cannot be argued that this is a strong argument because advertisers have right under legal means to conduct their business. The entire burden lies with the people who look after the safety of the children from home.

[Cantsay]

I raised concerns about this last year, or early this year. About how so many social media platforms are exposing kids to gambling, how they are allowing these gambling platforms to promote their sites. While, the social media operators, do not have anything set in place to protect children who might be using their site.

I saw on my cousin's Facebook page a video that had the BCGame logo and a little ad placed on it, being displayed to her, and yet she is very young. If I am to blame, I would blame the social media platform and not even the betting site because it is the job of those platforms to provide protection to their users and yet they couldn't do that.

[DiMarxist]

Technically if you think about it you would realize that they might actually have a point on this because the casinos don't try to convince anyone to gamble, all they do is to advertise just like other companies. In as much as shifting their blame to parents they should come up with ways to ensure that kids are safe from all these. They didn't exactly force anyone to gamble this is the reason why they are on their right.

[Josefjix]

If gambling ads are being banned in a particular country won't that ads appears in other people's countries? Using those instances that you mentioned. And yes there is a sense into what you have said about parental control toward Gambling and when people neglect their responsibilities to control their children on the types of site their children should be accessing especially those apps that advertise gambling ads. When their parents limits their activities it would also reduced how their children gets exposed to gambling sites. Naturally the gambling site do not directly invite people to go gamble on their site and even when they are gambling, there is always a warning that indicates only 18+ plus.

It's always impossible to control kids from accessing these gambling sites, and most stubborn children always tends to do what parents instructs them not to do. You can't be with your kids all the time when they are browsing on the Internet, so they might mistakingly click on a gambling ads and then watch so many varieties of casinos games, even though they are not up to 18+ to deposit. It had registered in their brain that someday, maybe when they get older, they'll definitely deposit and try it out.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Note that the Spotify has an advertising opt out option that users can decide to opt out of the kind of ads they don't want to see, such as gambling ads and that satisfies my concern.

You’re conveniently missing something here. It’s impossible to use Spotify ad-free without paying a subscription. How many people can afford to have more entertainment bills on their salary?

I thought about that for a second too. You want to mitigate gambling ads and that's OK, but at the expense of people who don't desire to see them is witchcraft. Technically, I'm paying to not see something that I, at the consuming end should just be able to opt out? So they're like --- "fuck it, if they all can't subscribe and make us some more millions, screw them and they can get lured and addicted all they want".

We're talking about kids, of which some could be minors. The world is fucked!

~snip

At the end of the day, everyone is actually responsible for their actions. Parents should train their kids properly till they actually become of age to make their own decisions.

Correct. Everyone has a role to play. The outcome depends on how effectively, all three can walk the child through that vulnerable phase.

[Joeboy]

I feel the gambling companies are partially right on blaming parents and ads companies who display their ads on platforms where kids usually visit without considering the consequences of their actions.

The betting companies do not deliberately put their ads on such platforms knowing fully well that there restrictions that could attract sanctions if flaunted so it is the place of a parent to monitor the sites their kids often visit in order to prohibit them from harmful contents on the internet

Cause there are chances that a child could stumble into such platform in the course of using the internet, the kids can as well meet strangers online that can lure them into those bad underage social habit as gamble

They don't deliberately put it you say, but they are very much aware of these sites which runs these promotions for them...And that their awareness is questionable, infact it already shows that they don't care about the safety of the underage, all they care about is how to attract traffic to their platforms, then get more profit from the users Shikena... However I wouldn't still leave the parents out of the blame infact I personally blame both parties --The Casino due to their awareness as well as the Parent due to their laxness and negligence..As a parent you are supposed to be cautious of what your children feed to their eyes ...As a parent you are meant to teach your children to ensure that they have no business watching any programs that goes beyond Pj Masks,  Dora, Ben10, Power Rangers and all the other cartoons that our kids used to..Even while watching this content, it could still cannot be predicted of the sort of content that will still pop out when the kids are  watching this programs..This is why parents should always find ways to monitor their children activities...

[Anayochukwu]

If a country has already banned casinos then we don't have to blame them anymore if our minors get exposed to it on the media because definitely as long as they have access to Mobile phone then there's no way we can eliminate their exposure to these casinos site and even casinos have their target audience so to get themselves off the hook they have already made it clear that target audience are people from 18 and above as every casinos is rated 18+ so the blame should be shifted to the parents for even allowing a minor to have access to the media, everyone have different roles to play and if the government have already banned casinos and the casino target audience are 18+ then it is the responsibility of the parents not to allow their minors have access to the media.

[Sonia_123]

Parents and platforms should not be held reasonable for the wrongs which casinos are doing, Casino placing adverts is to promote their business, how do you now expect parent to stop the children from watching adverts, is it to stop them from using their gadgets or how, what about parents that does not gamble that are not familiar with gambling and their children secretly gamble, do we blame their parents for that, children are made to explore and practice what they watch, a reform should be made on how casino adverts should be made.

Children finds it difficult to stay offline nowadays and the go far and wide into the internet, so parenting control is minimal even as they try, they cannot quickly figure out when a child starts gambling.

[Agathamay]

Life as a whole has its ups and downs which is to say that, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything and the use of internet can't be excluded and with that been said, it will be very difficult to point fingers of blames to either the parents or the gambling sites because as a parent, you wouldn't want your children to indulge in gambling and as gambling sites alway make it plan that people under the expected age shouldn't gamble, so I think everything falls back to the child but that doesn't all mean that, both the parents and the gambling sites are totally exempted from the blames.

[Chibit01]

I don't understand why they are shifting the blame to parents and the platforms running those ads. Aren't the casinos and gambling platforms paying to have their ads displayed on those platforms? IMO, parents and the platforms running those ads shouldn't be blamed for this, instead of making the blame one sided they should stop running gambling ads on platforms where children visits regularly to prevent them from getting exposed to gambling platforms and casinos.

Casinos actually do pay to have their ads promoted base on the target but sometimes there affiliates also run their own ads just to encourage players from all over the world to click and sign in. This is why you could easily see inappropriate and misleading ads about a casino you don't expect to be seen in such an unlikely scenario, so the casino could be right in blaming the players.

[JiiBs]

I raised concerns about this last year, or early this year. About how so many social media platforms are exposing kids to gambling, how they are allowing these gambling platforms to promote their sites. While, the social media operators, do not have anything set in place to protect children who might be using their site.

Can’t kids protection involve having them to stay offline at certain points?
Let’s face it, the media is for everyone, kids and adults alike. While certain contents might be acceptable to the adult forks, it might not be the case for kids we know. However, there is always such a thing as parental guidance. When in place, this helps to retaliate what the kids are exposed to and when not in place, you can be rest assured they would see what they will.

That’s where your training kicks in. As a parent, you ought to have trained your kids well enough to be responsible for themselves and be of good moral standards. If that’s lacking, of course it’s always going to be a problem.