Have Gambling Apps Gone Too Far?

Have gambling apps crossed the line?

Sports betting has always been part of Australian culture, but has technology changed the game?

In this episode of The GOKO Podcast, Greg and Troy tackle one of Australia's biggest and most controversial issues: the rise of smartphone betting apps and the explosion of gambling advertising. They discuss whether modern betting platforms are making gambling too accessible and ask whether vulnerable Australians are being deliberately targeted.

From sports advertising to political inaction, this conversation explores where personal responsibility ends and where society should step in.

In this episode:

• Are gambling apps making addiction worse?

• Why sports betting advertisements are everywhere.

• How smartphone betting changed the gambling industry.

• Are betting companies targeting vulnerable people?

• Should governments regulate betting more aggressively?

• Where should the line between freedom and responsibility be drawn?

Timestamps

00:00 - Have gambling apps gone too far?
01:00 - Gambling advertising and its impact on Australian families
02:00 - Why betting apps have changed everything
03:00 - Peter V'landys and the role of sporting organisations
04:00 - The government's response to the gambling debate
05:00 - Politics, regulation and public responsibility
06:00 - Australian cricket and leadership
07:00 - The Allan Border Medal controversy
08:00 - Returning to the gambling debate
09:00 - The AFL, the NRL and betting
10:00 - Are gambling companies targeting vulnerable people?
11:00 - Freedom of choice versus social responsibility
12:00 - Senate inquiries, addiction and enabling behaviour
13:00 - Final thoughts and audience reactions

What do you think?

Should Australians be free to gamble however they choose, or should betting apps and advertising face tougher restrictions?

Leave your thoughts in the comments.

👍 Subscribe to The GOKO Podcast for more conversations about business, technology, investing, leadership, politics and the future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

After the Senate inquiry, what is the future of sports betting in Australia? Why is Pauline Hansen staying so quiet about it all? And stay tuned for my take on why those hard betting ads are destroying young Australian lives.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Gregory, how are you, mate? Mate, I am dangerous. You're dangerous? Look, we've got the papers out here this week, and I've uh I I know that you've been furiously uh writing some notes here, and you said there's some things that you must tell me this week that have really got under grind grind your gears, right? Ground your gears. Oh, well, I know there's not.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

There's stupid and there's stupid and they're stupider. Is there such a word?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Well, you are reading the papers. There's plenty of stupid in there, mate. Well, but people would argue the people who write those could be put in that bucket.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Some two guys go and find a suitcase on the side of a highway in Gulbin, partially open it up Say they see the body of a female in there. Well, it was. Well, then they ring the police and the police come from everywhere, they cord it off crime scene for two days. They think it's a body in there. But the only problem is it's not a body, it's a sex story. It was a sex toy. The question I have, talk about dumb and dumb. I have to make a movie about this. Somebody asked, Well, why didn't you open it up? We can't interfere with the crime scene. Well, what happens if there's somebody in there and there's actually a heartbeat, a pulse?

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Well, some people would argue, people who are into that kind of thing, that their girlfriends do have a pulse.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Imagine if there was something in the bag that had a pulse.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Oh, right. No one actually checked that.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

We're not going to do that. It's a crime scene then. So let the poor bastard die.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

What I think is the funniest thing about all of this is that the actual um uh the actual guy, right, he's probably just about he probably nearly got sprung off his misses having a sex toll. He's like, what do I do with this? He's at the back of Goldman. Opens up the out of the suitcase, drives up the road, throws it out, thinking, oh, that's the end of that.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

I think you're thinking too much.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

All of a sudden it's international news.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

That went around the world body found his suitcase. It expects two bimbos from some third world company country to be doing something like this. No, it's in Australia. And not only that, I thought, oh, maybe it was just one policeman that turned up. No, there was like there was like a posse turned up to investigate this, but nobody ever does case.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

What I want to know is what kind of doll was it? How realistic was this doll? Well, I don't know. I thought that's what you'd want to know, Greg. No, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

I've never seen one, I don't need one never to go there.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Okay, right. I didn't know that. Um I'm not interested. Well, well, that well, that was a funny note to start with. Look, we had a bit of a chuckle with that, which is funny. Go, go, you can go check it out. We might drop the link of so you can go see that story. It was hilarious. Um, you you wrote down here, you've got in big bold letters the word Elon. What what's what's grinding your gears about Elon this week, mate?

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Well, you know, I've listened to mate, he's he's selling us a lemon.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

He's a good salesman, Elon. He well, I wouldn't say he's a good salesman, but he's uh he's he doesn't mind selling.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Remember back in the days when you got a bad car, it was called sold or a lemon. Yeah, he's selling my thinking. He's talking about no jobs, no money, 80% people's jobs just disappear over the next three to five years.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

What do you mean he's talking about no jobs and no money? What the people aren't gonna have need jobs, is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

No, because of AI, because of computers, because of robots. Hey, look, let me tell you something. Well, I mean, hang on, listen to this. I was I was watching the block. Now I didn't watch the block yet. I was watching the end of the block.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

People are already judging you for watching the block now, mate.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I was watching the end of the block, and uh, because 60 minutes comes on. Right. I always watch 60 minutes, and uh so I've gotta listen to what's the buff head that runs the show. Oh Scott Scottie Cam. Scotty Cam. He's alright. Oh, he's just a big thumping big buff head. So, any rate, what happens is he whistles like you're whistling for a dog, and out comes this robot dog uh uh dog, and it's carrying the prize or something for the next week, and of course it's the robot dog. But what got me was looking at the face of the of the you know the contestants or whatever they are, who are they? The people, the contestants, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

The people building houses and whatever. Well, you know, mate, you watch it every week.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

You should maybe the shock horror of seeing this dog, this robotic dog, yeah. Emotionally they all couldn't they weren't coping.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Well, you mean like they was just surprised by they're like, Well, it's a bit no, it looked like there was a scene of a car crash. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

And I and I've always found, as as you know, uh an old salesman as I am, you know, if you emotionally lose somebody in the sale, you're gone. It's done, you've lost the sale, ain't gonna happen because see logic is good, but emotion is the decision maker. Yeah and I'm getting a bit deep here, but emotionally I saw just a moment it was just a just a thing. But Elon, you and your, you know, we're gonna have five billion robots. Well, I tell you what, you're gonna have five million, five billion, no, five billion, you're gonna have five billion people look like there's been a train crash.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah, but mate, of course that's gonna be of look. Greg, five billion robots I think is absolutely possible, especially when it comes absolutely it's possible. Like when you're talking about mass production.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Elon's got your leg and is pulling it.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

You gotta watch out because it's not Greg's opinion. Hey, mate, five billion po robots is absolutely possible because the facts are won't be accepted. What no no, well, no, I'd I'd argue I'd argue that Greg. But the the the population that is growing up, like the younger population these days, it's completely different.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Well, what's the bet what are the why are they different?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Well, mate, they ex they they they accept that like as an example.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Do they bleed? Of course they bleed.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Do they cry? Okay, so as an example, yeah, my eldest is 16. He's never known a world without a smartphone, right? Never known a world without a smartphone. Now, I think you would agree with me, surely, that the smartphone has been a revolutionary technology. It's it's it's shaped people's perceptions and the way they think. For example, when you were when you were growing up back in the 40s, uh the 30s, sorry, I mean when uh uh when you were growing up, Greg, were people mind-numbingly staring at a screen for hours on end? No. No, they were not. Now, even when I was growing up, there was Game Boys and and and consoles and things like that, and you could play handheld devices, but it didn't have that addictiveness that an iPhone has or that a smartphone has, right? So this whole world, um, this whole new generation, you know, I'd say people at the moment under say 2021, they've never known a world without this kind of technology. And so I actually feel and think that you'll find there'll be a completely different aspect to this. Now, as another example, in the last 20 years, how of how many more stories do you hear of people who find their match on Tinder as opposed to meeting them at at a at a at a dance or a club or whatever it might be, right? So this whole generation they think and operate different. So I think ruling, completely ruling out what Elon's saying is incorrect. I now I'm not saying it's gonna be as extreme as what Elon's saying, but I do believe there's absolutely going to be a call for uh companionship, shall we say? Not the one that was in the suitcase, but a call for companionship.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Are you saying one of your sons is gonna have a robot robotic girlfriend?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

I think there's look, I'm not saying that's gonna happen. What I'm saying isn't it? What I'm saying is that I don't think I think it would be silly to rule things like uh robots helping uh in in uh outside of factories. So as an example, I'll tell you a great example, um in a in a um uh aged care facility, right? Uh in in a um in a place of maybe maybe it's a like a like an orphanage where they're helping out with uh you know babies or whatever it may be, right? Areas where um uh childcare, another example, right? I don't think I think you're the people who react the way that they do, like as an example, those contestants who reacted to this robotic dog running out. Well, yeah, that's pro because they haven't grown up in a world where there's been robotic dogs, right? But but showing some of these robots and things that happen to to people under 20, it's not that it's not that surprising. Listen. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

But Elon's saying in the next two to five years.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's it.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

No, people aren't gonna change in the next two to five years.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

They're not gonna change in the next two to five years, but I think absolutely possible to have mass production in robotics.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

In 20 years' time, maybe, and I want to come back to what Elon's saying. I do not believe for one moment there's gonna be eighty percent of people not working. I'll tell you what, can I tell you a story? Tell me. And I've said something similar before I'll say it again. Back in the 60s, yes, when I was a young boy, unfortunately, and um my father comes home and he said, I'll be problematic. I said, What's the problem? No, I'm just a young boy. Eight, nineteen machines have arrived and uh in the factory he worked for a big firm that made a suit that's in clothes, yeah. Half the factory is gonna go out of the job. Right. I went to school for weeks and worried about that. How do we go? Oh, what happened? We reinvented ourselves. Of course. In the eighties, my brother joined a company and um he said computers. It's all about computers. People are gonna be out of jobs. It's a disaster. People, computers are gonna take over. How do we go? Oh let me guess. We reinvented ourselves. Oh my god. Then in the year 2000, the internet, online, influences, life's gonna change forever. How do we go? Oh no. What the world reinvented itself.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

All those instances you mentioned, you did not even mention at one point uh that about artificial intelligence and where it is now. There was no artificial intelligence of these of the level that is in 2026. What I'm saying is in the 60s, in the 80s, and the 2000s. Of course it's going to reinvent itself. But what we're talking about now is a technology that is way bigger, way smarter, way everything compared to those examples you gave in the 60s, 80s, and 2000s.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

I don't care why I'll think bigger than Elon Musk. Right, okay. See, Elon Musk is put everybody in that round hole.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Everything. Entrepreneurial thinking, everything. But Elon, that hole is way bigger than that. And your big thinking has been small thinking. And you've let that down the world because that can grow bigger. Entrepreneurial spirits, new opportunity, new things we can do, new things we can do with AI. There's so many. There's going to be um companies that you know who specialize in helping people in these areas with this intelligence. There's going to be offices, administration, uh people are going to be courses, university courses. Things can grow out of this. Start thinking big, everybody. Everybody thinking Elon Musk is selling us a bloody lemon. No, I'm not wearing it. It will not, it will not finish society. Society will reinvent itself and it'll grow bigger and bigger until another idiot like Elon Musk. It's long in 20 years time.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

You've got to watch out for Greg the Lefty. Uh, you know, he's uh he's uh you know a bit left-leaning today. Well I'm that's okay. You know what?

SPEAKER_01 12:13

I'm in support. I'm in support. The society reinvents itself and the world becomes bigger and better and a greater place to live in.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

No, no, I look, I don't think I I actually agree with the part that humans will reinvent and they they humans are very adaptive, right? Really? We adapt to whatever the the situation is. No, the computerized dog is not. But one thing I will say is that we're not dealing with machine press, we're not dealing with whatever the example was you gave in the 80s, and we're not dealing with computers of the early 2000s. We are dealing with a superpower here, right? This is this is uh this is uh something that's much more smarter than every single human put it together in the world. That's what we're dealing with now. And I think the point that Elon Musk is trying to make is more so to be aware of what's going to happen.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

No, we reckons the whole world's gonna be on the dull. He's an idiot.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

So anyway, it was lovely that you all joined us this week. Well, straight to the point. Thank you very much, Greg. Appreciate it. Let us know what you think. Is Elon Musk an idiot? Is he not? Drop a comment, let us know.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Or is he selling us a lemon?

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Is he selling us a lemon? Who knows what it is? Uh, let us know in the comments. All right, guys. See you next week, Greg. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

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