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Australians currently spend about A$25 billion (US$16.8 billion, £12.9 billion) on legal gambling each year.
Like many people in Australia, Sam grew up in a community where punting was synonymous with sport.
“Friends and family would ask, 'Who are you betting on this week?' It was just a normal conversation,” said his sister, Amy, who asked not to be named.
Looking back, she believes the way gambling crept into their home and social interactions is what led to her brother's addiction and the suffering he endured before taking his own life.
“He was physically and emotionally devastated,” she explains. “We tried everything. We were a close family and obviously didn't know how bad it was. He was devastated.”
Amy is one of dozens of people who have come forward to testify at a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the impact of gambling in Australia, where the per capita stakes are higher than any other country.
The investigation found “few safeguards” to protect people battling addiction and recommended 31 reforms to avoid “luring” a new generation of children into gambling, starting with a three-year phased advertising ban.
There is now growing pressure on Premier Anthony Albanese to act, both from outside and within his party, with opinion polls showing a majority of the public support the move.
But the government has suggested it may impose a cap to restrict advertising, citing the role that gambling advertising revenue plays in propping up the country's struggling free-to-air broadcasters and warnings from betting companies that a ban could drive consumers overseas.
The industry's peak body said doing so would result in huge tax losses for Australian gambling platforms which currently fund “essential services”.
The debate has fueled accusations that corporate interests are getting in the way of common-sense reform.
It also highlights the deep-rooted connections between sport, gambling and entertainment in Australia.
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A bipartisan congressional committee has warned that action is needed to stop the “education” of a new generation of children into gambling.
Gambling boom
Betting has a unique place in Australian culture.
In the 1980s, the UK was the first country to deregulate its gambling industry, allowing slot machines, once only permitted in casinos, to be expanded to licensed pubs and clubs.
Currently, Australia is home to around 0.33% of the world's population but a fifth of its “pokies”, slang for slot machines.
Online betting has exploded in popularity over the past two decades, particularly when it comes to sports. Estimates suggest that Australians spend around A$25 billion (US$16.8 billion, £12.9 billion) on legal bets every year, with 38% of the population gambling weekly.
Experts say slick marketing has fuelled the boom, while sponsorship deals, partnerships and kickbacks to powerful sports organisations have helped legitimise the industry.
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Slot machines have been installed in licensed pubs and clubs in Australia since the 1980s.
Sean (not his real name) has been gambling legally, and often obsessively, for over 18 years. A friend introduced him to sports betting as a teenager, and things snowballed from there. “There were nights when I couldn't sleep because I didn't know what I was betting on. I found myself betting on sports I'd never seen, in countries I'd never heard of,” he told the BBC.
Now 36 and seeking help from sponsors, he doesn't like keeping track of what feels like a lifetime of losses, but estimates the total at about A$2 million.
He said the loss of relationships and years of isolation are hard to quantify: “If I hadn't gambled, I'd probably be married and have kids by now.”
Like Sean, 90% of Australian adults and almost three-quarters of children aged eight to 16 consider gambling to be a “normal part of sport”, according to an academic paper. Advocates such as Martin Thomas argue this is evidence that gambling has “permeated every corner of society”.
“My kids know as much about match odds and multiple bets as they do about their favourite players,” he told the BBC.
In Amy's view, normalising gambling not only makes it harder for people of all ages to escape it, it also creates a dangerous implicit implication that negative consequences like debt and addiction are the fault of the individual, not the system.
“When you watch a sporting event and you see it swarming with gambling ads, you think, 'Oh, I'm the problem, because everyone else is doing it,' you know what I mean?”
“My brother thought so too.”
Like many advocates, she wants to see gambling reframed as a major public health issue rather than a form of entertainment, because research shows that almost half of people who gambler are at risk of or have already experienced gambling-related harms, such as financial hardship, domestic violence, depression or suicide.
Research suggests that banning advertising could be a first step towards achieving that goal. And advocates say there's a well-trodden path for governments to follow. Thomas points to Australia's 1992 decision to ban tobacco advertising — credited with dramatically reducing smoking rates — as evidence that it can be done.
But while Premier Anthony Albanese has described the “saturation of gambling advertising” as “unacceptable”, he is yet to set out any concrete course of action.
Instead, when asked, he pointed to other government initiatives, such as banning the use of credit cards for online gambling and creating a registration system to screen people from gambling sites. At times, he portrayed gambling as an old problem.
“I think (this) has been an issue in our society probably since before there were buildings, when men and women were walking and betting who could ride a horse the fastest or run from rock to rock,” he told the council on Wednesday.
“The house always wins”
Australia's peak body representing gambling companies said a total ban would be an “overreach” and backed the government's proposed caps to restrict online advertising and during general television programming.
“This will allow us to meet community expectations for fewer ads whilst maintaining vital support for sporting codes and local broadcasters,” Responsible Wagering Australia CEO Kai Cantwell said in a statement.
But Dr Andrew Hughes, a marketing lecturer at the Australian National University, questioned how significant that financial support would be, given that Nielsen data shows the majority of advertising revenue received by broadcasters in the country comes from a range of other areas, not gambling platforms.
And independent senators such as David Pocock have criticised the logic of using gambling money to support the media.
“Journalism is vital but it should not be relied on to promote a product that we know is harmful, causing addiction, personal problems, family breakdown and in some cases suicide,” he told the BBC.
“The government should have the imagination to look at other ways to fill that gap.”
Pocock is one of several senators who have publicly questioned whether gambling companies and the industries they fund are meddling in policy decisions, citing a history of extensive lobbying and big political donations.
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Premier Anthony Albanese is facing tough questioning in parliament about whether to impose a ban.
Last week he signed an open letter along with 20 other MPs from across the political spectrum in support of the advertising ban, while also calling for a free vote on the issue to allow MPs from Mr Albanese's party to move across the floor without facing backlash.
Mr Albanese faces increasing pressure, with several medical groups also backing the ban, as does a government-appointed expert committee to look at ways to reduce Australia's domestic violence rates.
The government already issues warnings about gambling advertising to remind people of the risks.
But Sean says it does little to deter people who are targeted by addiction.
“You know the house always wins, but you try to place a bet every time and it all goes to waste,” he explains. “You start thinking, I'm trying to get that one win that will get me away from it all, that will get me back everything.”
No decision has been made yet and Mr Albanese's government is still considering its options, but for Amey the discussions themselves have become so “insensitive” he is having a hard time keeping up.
She doesn't understand what's causing the delay and wants answers.
“Anyone who understands the issue would certainly agree with a total ban on advertising – that's what the evidence shows,” she told the BBC. “It's almost as if lobbyists are in control of the government… We're dangling this dangerous product in front of everyone, normalising it, and now the worst-case scenario has happened to us.”
“My family will never recover. They'll never recover.”
