Despite being past the halfway mark of the election campaign - neither the PM or the Opposition leader has shown any appetite for banning gambling ads and reducing gambling harm.

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This is despite the fact that polls now show that 76 per cent of Australians want a gambling ad ban. This is a stunning result, so the campaigning silence on this by the major parties is equally stunning.

It also defies new research that shows gambling companies are grooming our kids in alarming numbers to gamble, and that the gambling losses at the household level are now greater than what families are paying in power bills.

New research by The Australia Institute shows that almost one in three kids, aged 12-17, are now gambling. That is a total of 600,000 kids, enough to fill the MCG six times over, gambling a total of $18 million.

It is bizarre that both parties have pledged to "protect our kids from social media" but they are more than happy for our kids to be exposed to gambling ads on their screens (one million ads every year) and through the sport they watch.

Both Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton appear to be deliberately ignoring the compelling and popular cry for a ban on gambling ads.

Just this week the Prime Minister said that even if he were re-elected, he would not necessarily act on banning gambling ads, which was a key recommendation of the parliamentary inquiry into online gambling, led by Labor's own, the late Peta Murphy.

Likewise, Peter Dutton has avoided a commitment to ban gambling ads, content that his proposal to extend the ban on gambling ads around live sport for an hour is enough to wedge the government on........

© Canberra Times