The Managing Director and CEO of Australian racing and wagering giant Tabcorp has thrown his support behind a proposed ban on gambling advertising but says banning bookmakers from offering inducements would be a step too far.
Adam Rytenskild offered his views during a wide-ranging interview with Australian racing site Racenet during which he was asked about the findings of a recent parliamentary inquiry into online gambling which, among other recommendations, called for a complete ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling, to be phased in over three years.
Echoing comments he made at the Regulating the Game conference in Sydney in March, Rytenskild said, “We support [the ad ban], we advocated for it, we think that is good for punters in the long run because punters want a sustainable industry.
“I don’t think it benefits anyone for gambling advertising to be saturating programs when families are watching TV. They also talked about the potential for a federal regulator [and] we support that, we support nationally consistent regulation. There is no point if you have one operator in a jurisdiction subject to a bunch of rules and then everyone else is subject to a different bunch of rules.”
However, on the issue of banning the ability for sportsbooks to offer inducements to customers, he added, “We don’t support that. We don’t think there should be a ban on inducements, but we agree you shouldn’t be able to advertise inducements.”
Explaining that he supports innovation across Australia’s racing and wagering industry to ensure racing in particular can appeal to younger audiences, Rytenskild also suggested that the merging of pools between states could be on the agenda in the short-term as a means of providing punters with greater confidence in liquidity.
“If we secure the Victorian tote, once we know what’s happening, we are very happy to merge pools,” Rytenskild said. “We totally support it and are ready to get on with it.”
