5AA Mornings with David & Will: Ban on Gambling Ads on Public Transport

MEDIA TRANSCRIPT 

Radio Interview 19 June 2025 

5AA Mornings, Will Goodings and David Penberthy   

WILL GOODINGS. HOST:  Just before the break, you mentioned, David, some legislation that passed state Parliament last night, unopposed, that would see - it turns out uncontroversially because we haven't received a single text from anyone saying it’s a bad idea nor a call, we have got a few texts from people saying it’s a good idea - we will no longer see gambling advertising on state owned assets like trains or buses or billboards on government sites.  

DAVID PENBERTHY, HOST: Similar to the junk food ban. You remember a couple of weeks ago we had Connie Bonaros SA-BEST MLC on and that was about her push, which was also successful last night and I think rightly so, for an inquiry into harassment and discrimination, bullying and so forth at the local government level. BUt also, and this is something that’s new, the government and the Lib[eral]s have supported Ms Bonaros’ ban on gambling ads on government infrastructure and we have Connie on the line now. Connie that’s a good win for you.  What does this gambling ban mean and when do you think it’s likely to take effect?)  

THE HON CONNIE BONAROS, MLC: We will have to work out the timeframe because obviously the government has existing contracts around gambling advertising on trams, trains and trams and so forth so we will have to deal with those. But effectively for some months now, actually following the government’s announcement on the junk food ban, I thought...well this is a great segue to gambling and so I put that up in Parliament, went to a vote yesterday...pretty much got unanimous support of the Parliament. Which was a fantastic outcome, I think.   

GOODINGS: Do you know what the value of the contracts that the gambling companies have with the State Government are? 

BONAROS: I've asked that question. I don't know overall. I think when we talk about the trams, each one of those ads, every time they do one, is around the $50,000 to $57,000 mark. So that’s one of the issues that we have had to work with, with Tom Koutsantonis over some time, obviously, because they are going to have work out how they deal with that. But the bottom line is we don't want to be seeing that. We see lots of stats every day about the exposure that kids get to online gambling . Well, they get it every day to and from school as well and they get it on public infrastructure.  We don't need our trams wrapped in gambling ads for SkyCity or whoever it is who is advertising on this, it’s just not necessary and it’s not helpful - it’s harmful to kids.   

PENBERTHY: Did anyone at Parliament, though, discuss the fact that there might be still a bit of a double standard here? I mean what would it mean for Morphettville when they want to do a whole tram, given they have got a tram stop, a day at the races. We have got a state government gazetted public holiday for a horse race. Is all of that still going to keep happening?) 

BONAROS: I think we already know that a day at the races is going on. And they will be able to do their own advertising, they are just not going to do it on public infrastructure.  They have got enough space down there and enough billboards and whatever else to do their advertising. We don't need it in our kids’ faces. This is what normalises gambling behaviour which leads to gambling addiction. And all these things are targeted at kids from a very young age to normalise gambling - make it part and parcel of everyday life.  So that when they do turn eighteen, they do trot off and go and you know have a punt on the races or a bet online or whatever the case may be. But we know what the impacts on kids are, we’ve got the highest gambling rate in the world.  Our losses are ridiculous. We don't need to be doing more to promote that, and my position was; if it’s good enough for junk food, well it’s more than good enough for gambling.   

PENBERTHY: Thanks to Connie Bonaros for joining us there. 

ENDS.