Mark Kempster has endured significant losses due to an online betting addiction that began when he was just 15, playing Australian Rules football. This addiction cost him over $100,000, consumed his 20s, and nearly tore his family apart.

“It ruined me,” Kempster reflects. “It turned me into a horrible person for a long time.”

Though Kempster hasn’t placed a bet in five years, he continues to be haunted by the pervasive presence of gambling content on social media. Young influencers frequently share posts about playing pokies, making it difficult for him to escape the reminders of his past struggles.

“I try to block them every time I see them because I don’t want to see it. But I can’t keep up with them,” he admits.

It’s a trend he has noticed gaining momentum this year, underscoring the ongoing challenges he faces in maintaining his recovery.

Young Australian influencers, predominantly men, are posting themselves gambling at the pokies, often spending thousands of dollars each time.

Their entire social media feeds show the colourful allure of the pokies machine, their bets and wins. 

When they do post their losses, some in the thousands, it is often in a nonchalant manner and considered to be all part of the game.

Some have even partnered up with betting companies to promote their services.

One Australian influencer, who 9news.com.au has chosen not to name, films himself betting each day at the pokies to his hundreds of thousands of followers.

He largely posts his wins, making his followers believe he is the “luckiest guy alive”, despite the odds of winning a maximum prize on the pokies being one in seven million.

He has inspired young men to get tattoos of his catchphrase, and even draws a crowd at the pubs he gambles at. 

But his social media comments highlight a disturbing trend: “I hit this last night as well”, “Makes this look too easy”, and “What casino my bro please tell me”. 

Kempster, who is now an advocate for gambling reform, has witnessed the real-world consequences of these influencers.

He has been approached by people as young as 17 who have fallen into gambling and lost up to $20,000 after watching these influencers on social media in the past eight months.

“It’s having a huge effect,” he said.

”It’s a public health issue. They are glamorising how cool it is, and how much fun it is, when we know that this causes so much social harm in the world.”

State and territory governments are responsible for the direct licensing and regulation of all land-based gambling products, like pokie machines.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority regulates the advertising and promotion of illegal gambling services like online casino games and slots, and has previously issued a warning to social media influencers promoting these services.

But these pokies influencers do not fall under the authority’s regulation, as they promote a legal form of gambling. 

Gambling has been a significant topic for reform for decades, with Australia having the largest number of pokie machines per capita in the world.

Late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who led an inquiry into online gambling and advertising in 2023, said Australians were the “biggest losers in the world when it comes to gambling”.

“We have a culture where sport and gambling are intrinsically linked. These behaviours are causing increasingly widespread and serious harm to individuals, families and communities,” she said.

Kempster cannot watch sporting games anymore due to the gambling ads and has noticed his seven-year-old son’s footy team talk about the sport in terms of odds.

“The kids are being taught gambling is normal, and it’s something you have to do when you’re watching the sport, which is just such a horrible thing we’ve developed especially over the last 20 years,” he said. 

Murphy’s report handed down 31 recommendations, including a phased ban on online gambling advertising, a national online gambling regulator and monthly win and loss statements for customers.

But two years on, the government has failed to implement any of the recommendations. 

A government spokesperson said it “takes seriously our responsibility to protect Australians, particularly children and young people, from the harms of online gambling, and we are continuing to do the work to address this issue”.

They added that the government had undertaken “the most significant gambling harm reduction measures” in the past decade, like launching the national self-exclusion register BetStop.

But Kempster said the government has only done the most for gambling reform because former governments failed to do anything at all. 

“You’re going from zero to one, not zero to 100. They need to do more,” he said.

There are many different ways to get help and information about gambling. You can visit the National Gambling Helpline or call on 1800 858 858.