Ads disguise the harm from gambling
There have been recent calls for the Government to ban the advertising of medicines direct to the public. But should we also be considering banning, or at least putting warning labels on, ads for gambling?
You may have seen this on TV recently: a tale of loss and grief, but ultimately of redemption as something that was once lost is now found. Or what about a tale of family unity and togetherness, with a father looking out for the best interests of his children? Or perhaps the banter of mateship and camaraderie, both on and off the field?
Is this a heart-warming Sunday movie? A child-friendly drama with strong family values? Or perhaps another epic New
Zealand sports win? No, they’re all examples of ads for, or promotion of, gambling in New Zealand.
The first example is an ad for Lotto where a flight attendant overseas checks her ticket to find she’s won big, then loses the ticket in a scooter crash, only to recover it when the plaster cast is taken off her arm.
The second is an ad for Instant Kiwi where a father talks about wrapping and giving winning tickets to all his children just to see the looks on their faces.
The third example is a ‘‘commentator’’ from the TAB chatting with others from the commentary team about the All Blacks’ chances of winning in the weekend.
The message from these ads? Gambling is fun and heart-warming. Gambling is about family. Gambling is part of New Zealand culture.
However, none of these ads is explicitly identified as promoting gambling and many of us may not even consider them to be examples of such. Yet they are all encouraging us to ‘‘take a risky action in the hope of a desired response’’ – the definition of gambling from the Oxford Dictionary.
The Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand states that Kiwis lost more than $2.3 billion in gambling in the 2016-17 financial year. The foundation also estimates that 2 per cent of New Zealanders are problem gamblers and that each problem gambler affects, on average, six other people: partners, children, other wha¯ nau members.
Gambling has been estimated to cause more than 2.5 times the harm of diabetes and three times the harm of drug abuse.
Casinos have long used psychological tools to encourage punters to spend more time and more money in their establishments. The lack of clocks and external windows helps reduce the sense of passing time. Having a screen at the roulette table showing recent winning numbers reduces the time people stand and watch the spinning wheel to check whether their ‘‘lucky’’ number has come up.
The marketing techniques used to promote Lotto, Instant Kiwi, and the TAB are perhaps subtler, but they are arguably more insidious as they attempt to link gambling with positive feelings, with our values, and set up gambling as a normal part of our culture.
There are good arguments to ban direct-to-consumer ads for medicines, but at least medicines have a safety net of people having to access them via their GP. There are no such safety provisions for gambling; no middle-man for people to get past.
So, should we ban ads for gambling or at least put warning labels before and after them? You bet we should.