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An Australian study suggests that exposure to direct marketing from betting operators directly increases betting spending and short-term gambling-related harm.

Publication of the comes as Australia debates banning gambling advertising, with former Prime Ministers and premiers backing a lower house committee’s recommendation to ban all gambling ads.

The Gambling Research Australia study reaches conclusions which back such strong measures.

“This finding implies that banning wagering direct marketing, and the inducements they routinely promote (especially bonus bets and bonus deposits), would reduce betting-related harm in the Australian population,” the study says.

The report also finds that affiliate marketing is often deceptive in not revealing links to gambling operators, while bettors report that it is particularly influential in their decision-making.

The report suggests that “greatly improved regulation of wagering affiliate marketing in Australia would reduce gambling harm”.

Influencers, tipsters, odds comparison sites, expert review sites, betting communities and sports or racing news sites “almost certainly have a commercial affiliation with the wagering operators they promote, even if they do not disclose this relationship”, according to the report.

“Evidence points to a high likelihood of continued increases in gambling harm if wagering affiliate marketing remains unchecked,” the study says. “The implication is that, to reduce or contain gambling harm in Australia, greatly improved regulation of wagering affiliate marketing is needed — or a complete ban.”

The peer-reviewed study comes as Gambling Research Australia commissioned Central Queensland University to undertake the study, which was led by the New South Wales Government.   

The study focused on online betting, as online casino is illegal in Australia.

An industry trade group, Responsible Wagering Australia, has said a blanket ban would hurt media companies and sports, calling instead for “measured options”, such as caps on numbers of gambling ads.

The group said a ban on advertising and restrictions on direct marketing would hurt tax receipts and boost illegal offshore gambling websites.

The Gambling Research Australia study includes an “experimental” portion, a comparison of regular online sports bettors who agreed to opt out of direct marketing messages from operators with online bettors who continued to receive marketing.

Although the entire study supports the notion that exposure to betting direct marketing increases betting, betting spending and short-term harm, the experimental portion provides “stronger causal evidence”, the report says.

Gamblers opting out of receiving messages placed 23 percent fewer bets, spent 39 percent less on betting and reported 67 percent fewer short-term harms from betting, the authors wrote.

“This evidence indicates that receiving wagering direct marketing directly increases betting and betting-related harm”, the report says.

Betting affiliates tended to promote gambling even more aggressively than operators, with “a strong emphasis on promoting inducements and calls-to-action, urging customers to sign up or ‘bet now’ with the promoted operators”, according to the report.

The affiliates often do not disclose their commercial arrangements, and thus gain “unwarranted trust” from customers, as they often showed “noticeable bias” toward their commercial partners, potentially providing misleading advice, the study says.

The lack of disclosure can mislead bettors into thinking affiliates are “well-meaning experts” rather than businesses that profit from their losses, and the affiliates themselves are unable to monitor betting behaviour due to privacy laws, so they cannot detect signs of problem gambling, the report says.

Governmental direct marketing regulations apply to affiliates, but compliance is for the most part monitored by the betting operators, according to the report.

Key violations by affiliates include lack of customer consent and effective unsubscribe options, along with messaging sent to those experiencing gambling harm, the study says.

Regulators reported challenges keeping track of direct marketing by email and text because it is not visible to them.

The regulators suggested national legislation to require operators and affiliates to keep records of direct marketing activities, according to the report.

“Direct messages and inducements appeal particularly to bettors with a gambling problem,” the report says. “Direct marketing can therefore both create and exacerbate gambling harm.”