After months of lobbying from both sides, the Australian Federal Government continues to consider whether to place a ban on media gambling ads.

Anti gambling proponents cite the harm caused by gambling and want to ban gambling ads, as proposed by the late Peta Murphy in a parliamentary review last year.

On the other side of the issue, Australian tv networks will push for licence fees be slashed if a ban is implemented, to offset what is estimated to be $40 million in lost revenue from betting ads.

Commercial Radio and Audio declined to comment on the issue.

Analysis prepared for radioinfo by monitoring company Aircheck, shows that gambling ads on radio are a very small part of commercial radio’s ad inventory.

In the month of July, radio stations monitored by Aircheck played 4,276 gambling ads from a total of 836,660 ad instances, so gambling accounted for roughly 0.5% of all ads played on the radio stations monitored.

Ladbrokes was the biggest gambling advertiser on radio during July, followed by Sportsbet then the Victorian TAB.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland is considering a middle ground, possibly extending the ban on gambling advertising  before and after live sport, introducing a cap of two ads per hour on free-to-air TV, and bringing in a blanket ban on social media and digital platform gambling ads. A final decision has not yet been made.

While we don’t have comparative play figures for music streaming services, our radioinfo sampling over the past few weeks suggests that for free music accounts on platforms such as Spotify, the level of gambling ads is high. Paid accounts do not hear ads on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. We have several free test accounts on Spotify with different profiles that we use to monitor streaming platform trends. Of those free accounts, the most gambling ads were heard on profiles that we set up to be aged over 45 years old, these were ads such as a Scottish voiced narrator saying enjoy the Scotland match and by the way bet with xyz betting company. Gambling ads for the under 45s profiles were more the ‘bet with mates’ style ads.

AirCheck, a radioinfo advertiser, is the leader in broadcast monitoring of songs and commercials, providing real-time reporting tools for radio and television broadcasters, media outlets, record companies, advertising agencies and industry analysts.