Advertising restrictions in Australia have led to the government banning gambling advertising on public transport in New South Wales (NSW).
The ban will ban gambling advertising on all transport-owned and controlled facilities such as trains, tubes, buses, light rail, train stations and ferry terminals, both domestically and internationally.
The gambling advertising that will be included in the ban includes all casino, lottery and online betting advertising.
Jo Haylen, Minister for Transport, stated: “Gambling advertising has been a common sight on our public transport for a couple of years now, and I’m pleased our Government is taking action to remove it.
“Parents are rightly worried about the impact it has on their kids, so it’s not something that we think needs to be on our transport network.
“With over 3,500 buses, close to 800 advertising assets at train stations, as well as advertising on light rail and trains, Transport’s advertising contracts are vast. Because of the scale it will take some time to implement this change, but we will be working closely with our contract partners over the next 12 months to get this done.”
The government in NSW is set to work with multiple advertising contract holders to implement the required changes over the next year.
Advertising suppliers will have to refrain from working with gambling companies for transport advertising in order to apply by the laws, industry standards and codes of conduct set by the Australian Association of National Advertisers’ Advertiser Code of Ethics and Code of Ethics Practice Note.
The move follows a series of actions taken by the Minns government to reduce gambling harm which includes reducing the cash input limit on new gaming machines from A$5,000 to A$500, committing $100m to harm minimisation and banning all external gambling signage in venues.
Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris added: “Removing gambling advertising from public transport is another demonstration of the Minns Labor Government’s commitment to reducing gambling harm in NSW.
“This move will reduce the public’s exposure to gambling advertising and builds on the suite of reforms the government has introduced over the past 20 months to reduce harmful impacts of gambling.”
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