Footy kicks off this week (at last), and if you go to the AFL’s official website to look at the fixture, you’ll find that the games listed for this week have the Sportsbet odds for each team smack in the middle of the listing, with a link so you can place a bet.
Likewise the NRL and the NBL. (The A-League just has an ad for McDonald’s).
Two years ago a bipartisan parliamentary committee chaired by the late Peta Murphy, Labor member for Dunkley, with the Nationals’ Pat Conaghan as deputy chair, recommended that all online sports betting advertising be prohibited over three years.
Nothing happened; money won.
But when parliament next sits in three weeks’ time (if an election is not called first), there will be a private member’s bill trying a…