Stop sports betting ads on TV

Are you comfortable watching a sporting event on television with your kids or someone with an existing gambling problem and having the odds about all elements of the game in your face the entire time? Each year the coverage is devoting more and more air time to promoting betting on the event. Sports are marketed at adults and children, gambling shouldn’t be. Get back to the sport ‘only’ please.

A representative of Sportsbet speaking at the current parliamentary inquiry stated it’s a battle of market share for existing gamblers. That is a load of garbage in my view, of course they are trying to get new customers, they don’t care if there existing or having their first bet.

I have a bet and I don’t see any benefit in the advertising of it during a sporting event. In my view there is just too much wrong with this path taken by the sporting codes and the television stations.

There is now a parliamentary inquiry underway into this topic so I am not alone in my concern in this area. Here is a link with a news story on the ABC which is worth watching: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3725357.htm

After complaints Channel 9 are taking some of Tom Waterhouse's air time away starting this weekend also, so there is some momentum behind this cause.
It’s all about the money to the television stations and any defence of this is really just white noise. Channel 9 might say they need this revenue for the 'great coverage', like the 1, sometimes 2 live games a week they provide us with.....

From the NRL, "Of the NRL's $170 million income stream last year gambling sponsorship accounted for just $4 million" For the amount of damage this has the potential to cause, is the 2.4% of income it generated for the NRL worth it?

This is my view and I could talk more about why I am against it, but I’ll stop there, if you agree, please sign the petition. If you don’t agree, well enjoy your Friday nights with Tom, and count how many times there is 'unlimited' money by people 'jumping out of trees to get on'.