Australians are the world’s biggest gamblers. What role do lobby groups play?
Independent senator David Pocock, a former Rugby Union player, raised concerns that a gambling lobby group sponsored Parliament’s social sports club in 2025.
He expected the club to scrutinise its association with the gambling industry. Instead, they kicked him out.
Pocock’s concerns about the influence of the gambling lobby are part of a wider, ongoing debate over gambling reform in Australian politics. The full extent of one of Australia's most powerful and impactful industries is largely hidden behind closed doors.
What is a lobby group?
Industry lobby groups are organisations that work to influence government decision making and legislation in order to benefit those industries.
These groups influence regulators and politicians through campaign donations and by forging personal relationships with political figures.
The role of the gambling lobby
According to a 2024 report from Transparency International Australia, the gambling industry hired 13 lobby firms at the federal level, significantly more than any other harmful industry included in the report, such as the tobacco industry.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who has been pushing for gambling reform for over a decade, says the poker machine and online gambling industries have significant sway over policy.
Lobbying on behalf of the two industries is so powerful it “forces governments to have relatively weak regulation”, Wilkie says.
The primary lobbyists for poker machine companies are ClubsNSW and the Australian Hotels Association (AHA), while the major lobby group for online gambling is Responsible Wagering Australia, which represents major companies like Sportsbet and Bet365.
Responsible Wagering Australia is the lobby group that is listed as a corporate sponsor for the Australian Parliament Sports Club, and it was this sponsorship that Pocock raised as a concerning reflection of the gambling lobby’s close access to the Federal Government.
As the federal member for Clark, Wilkie has been an advocate for stricter gambling legislation for over a decade.
The success of these lobby groups in watering down gambling regulation is evident in the high per capita gambling losses in Australia.
Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Equity Economics show Australia’s annual gambling expenditure is $31.5 billion, which equates to $1,527 per Australian adult, the highest rates in the world.
“It might be the lack of harm minimisation measures. It might be ridiculously long trading hours. It might be ineffective self-exclusion arrangements,” Wilkie said, using poker machines to outline the types of regulation that impact gambling expenditure rates.
Wilkie compared the gambling expenditure in NSW, which allows pokies machines in pubs and clubs, to that of Western Australia, which does not, in order to show the relationship between accessibility regulation and gambling losses.
“High rates of gambling losses are a function of accessibility,” he said.
According to the Australian Gambling Statistics report for 2023-24, the expenditure rates in question were almost $13.3 million in NSW, and just over $2 million in Western Australia.
When the Tasmanian Labour Party proposed the phasing out of poker machines in pubs and clubs similar to WA in 2018, the gambling lobby donated $400,000 to the Liberal Party prior to that year's state election, according to data from the Australian Electoral Commission.
In 2025, the Victorian Parliament passed the Gambling Legislation Amendment 2024.
The bill proposed a trial for mandatory pre-commitment and carded play, which was intended to begin mid last year.
This meant punters using Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) would need to preselect how much they could spend. However, the trial was postponed and a new start date is yet to be determined.
The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission stated the delay in action would “enable the examination of nationwide best practices, and the exploration of technology neutral options”.
In the last financial year, the Victorian Government collected over $2.4 billion in taxes and levies from the gambling industry.
Ifraah Hassan, senior therapeutic counsellor for the Salvation Army Gambling Service, says while the government is gradually taking measures to minimise gambling harm, policymakers need to prioritise people over money and increase the pace of change.
“They were chosen by us to represent us,” Hassan says. “When they’re no longer doing that, that’s when we need to stand up and say enough is enough.”
Australia’s political decisions regarding gambling legislation and reform are subject to heavy influence and pushback from the gambling lobby.
The correlation between weak gambling legislation and high gambling expenditure reflects the gambling lobby’s ability to influence policy, keeping Australia’s losses and thus their profits incredibly high.
