Australian gambling veteran Gerard Daffy has tipped key regulation changes that could occur to gambling regulations in both his native country and the United States – warning that the landscape could be very different in a few years.
Having been a trailblazer for the industry across his career, his work in Australia has informed many standards in the gambling world and his work with CentreBet helping them to shift to online betting in 1996, expanding globally, and introducing features like multilingual sites, 24/7 live betting, and inclusion of female traders all helped shape the landscape.
His current work finds him working for the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB), which is the name given to monopoly totalisator organisations in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The company operate betting shops and online betting and were originally government owned, but in Australia most have been privatised.
With such an extensive history and knowledge base to draw him, he was best placed to discuss current and potential future trends. Before throwing it forward, he discussed how his company worked around the advertising ban which was only lifted in 2008, in his interview with Defy the Odds co-founder Sue Schneider in the latest SBC Leaders Podcast episode.
Gambling Advertisements: Past, present and future
“In 2008, it was illegal for bookmakers in Australia to advertise. That worked in our favour because I had a lot of links with the media in the early days and we didn’t have to pay any money to advertise. If there was any big news, I became the go-to man so we were fortunate in that part.
“The government then relaxed some laws, so all of a sudden came a massive influx of advertising but then came regulations around products fees paid to individual sports and they had a say on what you could and couldn’t bet on.”
Given the topic of advertising, it is something which is being criticised by the current population and he believes that we could see regulation change within the next few years, potentially even seeing gambling ads banned altogether. “There’s been a lot of talk in Australia about those ads on TV. There’s been a big influx of them particularly as licences have grown.
“People are sick of it; you watch any TV show at all and at the ad break, guarantee they’ll be one or two bookies, especially during live sports events. The critics say that is promoting gambling to minors so some of those rules have changed as well.
“The federal government discussed whether gambling ads should be outlawed altogether. That’s on hold until the elections take place. I think something big is coming in the next few years because people are sick of gambling ads.”
Future predictions for both Australia and the US markets
Having lived through the rise of online sports betting and gambling, Daffy used his extensive expertise to predict some future changes, both in his own country and in the vastly expanding US landscape. For Australia, he tipped multiple companies will likely not succeed in the market.
“I don’t really know, surely they can’t invent any news things to bet on. What I think is going to happen is there is going to be some closing of the doors. I mentioned 160 online bookmakers in Australia, that’s way too many, there’s going to be casualties there.
“If you start-up, the only way you can get a client off those 160 is to offer them money, in terms of bonuses which isn’t cost-effective so I think there is going to be a lot of casualties.”
Focusing on the US market, he warned that the market could be in line to face regulation changes given the current market landscape mainly dominated by a few major companies. “It has been interesting looking at the USA, you have a few companies that have chewed up most of the market.
“There’s still a few big states still to come but I think what will happen is the public over there who don’t bet and those who do have an issue with it will come down hard on governments or regulators and try to get some limit on what they can do with these operators because they’ve had a free reign until now. It’s in its infancy but I think their turn is coming over there.”
