Sport and gambling – loving the odds more than the game?

The particular focus today is the interaction I think between technology and the rapidly evolving technology and very very old activity which is gambling. It changed the way that people were being educated about enjoying their experience. In your opening remarks it's almost without us knowing it redefined what is the normal way of integrating into you know how you enjoy your sport. And I think this is one of those issues where we know the challenge ultimately for all of us is to try ahead of the game.
I think it has become socially accepted amongst players and when there's a lot of support and structure around players now days, and the support is there for them to seek help and we certainly encourage them to do that this website. But the next step is to look in environments in which they work and shift attitudes and behaviours towards towards gambling and actually aim or focus more on prevention. We've got a responsibility as Ian said to the community. We see the opportunity for professional sporting clubs to provide good leadership in areas like public health, and this is a public health issue, as well as a social justice issue I guess and it's as you've alluded to in a number of your remarks, its burgeoning as a problem it is possible to gamble safely. So when we talk about this issue around sport and gambling, when we think about the gambling industry as researchers we actually think about four players.
We think about the wagering industry itself, we think about sporting organisations, we think about broadcasters and their responsibility in terms of where they agree to have these ads during the sporting matches or during broadcasts, and we also think about government and what they can do to better protect the public from some of the things that we're starting to see. I think we need to you really sophisticated in the conversation that we have and we need to come from a position where all the facts are correct. One of the things that teenagers love doing is taking risks so this directly ties into that, the other thing they love is to be accepted by their peers and this is a peer activity so for me it's a real danger.
We really need to focus on the messages that we're pushing through. And that's something the industry is conscious of and we are all working we want to work with people such as Samanthas to try and figure out what is the appropriate standard. We have to look back it making sure that we don't go overboard and say we've got to eradicate gambling, and that's not why we're up here for. But in saying all that it has to be responsible and when you look at the proliferation of the ads and then they come back and they say but please always remember gamble responsibly, I think we have to look back at that and say really look at it and say is this just a throwaway line or are they actually doing something about it.
It is a complex topic it's a complex issue. We are in unprecedented environment where through technology gambling access is unprecedented. the level of promotion and advertising is unprecedented and the convergence of sport and gambling is unprecedented and I think what's been mentioned in highlighted, we don't yet know what is the impact to future generations of children.