from POLITICOZ ….the ALP’s gambling addictionAccording to a Fairfax report, Stephen Conroy has brokered a deal with the free-to-air TV industry about sports betting promotion.Making an absurd distinction, the deal will ban betting companies from spruiking odds during televised games but not at half and quarter time breaks, or before and after games.This extends the government's shameful record on this issue. In the 2010 post-election negotiations it won the support of Andrew Wilkie on the promise of pokies reform – but then failed to deliver anything substantial, under pressure from the gaming industry.The rise of the online sports gambling industry has occurred primarily on Labor's watch, since 2008 when legal action by James Packer's Betfair allowed companies to advertise on TV nationally while basing themselves in the ACT and Northern Territory for legal reasons. Labor state governments in Vic and NSW chose not to defend the ruling at the time, and the companies have run rampant ever since. It is only now, aware of how much revenue they're missing out on, that the states have raised any objections about gambling (but not pokies, of course, which are still filling their coffers).Australians already lose more gambling per capita than any other country in the world. This year alone has seen a 20% increase in spending on gambling advertising. Governments around the country are addicted to gambling, but it's society as a whole that pays the price.