Xenophon pushes for crackdown on ‘insidious’ gambling targeting kids
Under a bill to be introduced by independent Senator Nick Xenophon next month playing a range of popular video games will be defined as gambling as the senator suggests they are grooming kids to gamble.
Xenophon said he would introduce the bill to parliament when it resumed next month in a bid to minimize children’s access to gambling within games and also on third-party websites, Fairfax reports.
"This is the Wild West of online gambling that is actually targeting kids," Senator Xenophon told Fairfax.
Xenophon also asserted that children are being groomed to gamble through multiplayer first-person shooter games such as Counter-Strike:Global Offensive and Dota2.
The senator also believes that parents are oblivious to the their children's exposure.
Xenophon labelled the games as “insidious” and stated that they are regularly played by hundreds of thousands of Australian teenagers on a daily basis "morphing into full-on gambling and that itself is incredibly misleading and deceptive”.
"Instead of shooting avatars, parents soon find out that [their children] have shot huge holes through their bank accounts."
The legislation Xenophon will introduce could make it illegal for games to seek payment for items of varying value.
There could also could be minimum age requirements for gaming.
The bill would also mean games could be required to carry clear warnings of gambling content.
The bill, for which he is likely to seek bipartisan support, will define gambling in a way "that includes these sorts of games", he told Fairfax.
Xenophon's bill comes amid growing concerns about children betting on video games, also referred to as esports.
According to Bloomberg, gamers - many of them teens - are set to wager more than $7 billion on unregulated sites in 2016.
News break – July 31
