Anti-gambling advocates have reacted furiously to the
NRL chairman Peter V’landys’s open pursuit of gambling revenue, criticising his description of sport as “wagering content” as scandalous and counterproductive.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, V’landys said
opening next season in Las Vegas would help develop new broadcast and gambling markets in the US. He said some Americans were looking for wagering content in different timezones and “rugby league is the perfect one for that”.
Charles Livingston, an associate professor of public health at Monash University who focuses on gambling, said the US push undermined efforts by several clubs and players to reduce the volume of gambling advertisements at stadiums.
“He’s said the quiet part out loud,” Livingston said. “On one level, it’s entirely obvious this is not a game anymore, or a pursuit in its own right, it’s become fodder for gambling companies and he wants to maximise the revenue he gets for it.”
Several rugby league clubs have sought to
distance themselves from the gambling industry and agreed to no longer accept money from wagering companies, as part of the NSW government’s Reclaim the Game initiative. Some have banned gambling ads at grounds and removed sponsorship from all club apparel.
“I mean, this guy is just off the charts,” Livingston said. “He’s occupying a different system to the rest of us when it comes to gambling. Ask any parent with young children who watch football and they’ll tell you the thing they can’t stand is the gambling ads as they can see what they’re doing to them.”
V’landys
rejected suggestions he’d tied the future of the NRL to gambling revenue and said wagering was “one part of a massive revenue base”, which has grown from $15m a year to $50m. He said that revenue was directed back to “clubs, players, and participation”.
“Is that satire? Surely that’s satire,” said Tim Costello, the chief advocate of the alliance for gambling reform, after reading the V’landys interview.
“It is appalling that, with gambling doing so much harm in our community, that the head of the NRL seems obsessed with finding new ways to further entrench the league with the gambling industry.
“It is a tragedy to me that it is actually changing the way people follow sport, especially young people. They are now following the game not to support their team buy to see if their multi comes off.”
Australian rugby league boss saying ‘quiet part out loud’ in quest to generate revenue from US betting market, anti-gambling advocate says
www.theguardian.com
