I wouldn’t mind a wager that the scripts for those lobbying the federal government not to ban gambling advertising outright are being written by the same people who produce the infernally annoying ads.

Have a multi on us, the lobbyists say. More ads, more gambling, more revenue all round, more money for local sport. Winners all ’round, or your money back.

Disclaimer: Always lobby responsibly.

Of course, they don’t put it quite like that. In fact, it’s more like the Grim Reaper anti-AIDS ads of the 1980s: if you’re not prepared to use protection on us and our massively lucrative businesses and deals, you’ll be dead before you know it.

Disclaimer: Think what you’re really gambling with – our corporate influence.

Anyway, it’s working. Eighteen months ago, a federal government inquiry into online gambling chaired by the late Peta Murphy recommended phasing out ads over three years.

Promptly, the government got on with sitting on their hands. Despite agitation from the Greens and some of their own MPs, they’re still actively going nowhere.

In October, they said that there would be something by the end of the year. They didn’t say what year. But we’re at the end of this one in parliamentary terms and … nothing. Which for the gambling lobby, of course, is everything. It’s nil-nil, win-win.

Disclaimer: Chances are you’re about to lose our backing.

The messages are still mixed. Competition Minister Andrew Leigh told the ABC this week that the government could not muster the numbers in the Senate to........

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