The Senate may punt the gambling reform bill. Could the PM call that a win?

August 6, 2026 — 1:41pm

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Free drugs, escorts and other high-roller hospitality to keep problem gamblers betting what they can’t afford. Former rugby league player and compulsive gambler Luke Bateman’s sensational Senate testimony hurled him into the news on Monday, accusing unnamed industry officials of unconscionable conduct and eliciting strenuous corporate denials.

But the two-day inquiry into the Albanese government’s new gambling-ad legislation was at least as revealing for who didn’t turn up. And for what wasn’t, and isn’t, being said.

The Australian Football League and the National Rugby League refused to appear. That the powerful custodians of domestic football codes knew they didn’t need to suggests confidence that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won’t make changes that hurt them.

Reform advocates were there, likewise Free TV Australia, continuing to press the need for ad revenue. Gambling companies fronted to counter calls to rein them in.

Reform advocate Tim Costello labelled it “Groundhog Day”, a truncated re-run of the longer inquiry Labor MP Peta Murphy led in 2023.

‘What drugs do you want?’ How betting companies lured Luke Bateman into gambling more

Murphy’s committee recommended a gambling ad ban, a national regulator and restrictions on inducements among measures to protect vulnerable Australians, especially children, from the industry’s more predatory practices. She died from breast cancer six months after tabling the report. Three years and one election later, the government produced a much tamer set of proposals. A dissatisfied........

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