Rugby league is one of Australia’s most celebrated exports, but there are growing fears the NRL’s ties to gambling are having an insidious effect on Pacific communities.

Sunday’s grand final between Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers will be watched by millions across Papua New Guinea, where rugby league is the national sport.

The broadcast will carry Australian gambling ads, according to Peter Aitsi, chairman of Transparency International PNG.

And he said those gambling ads would encourage Papua New Guineans, especially young people, to place bets on the NRL.

The competition is central to Australia’s relationship with the Pacific region.

Almost half of all players in the NRL identify as Pacific Islanders, and our shared love for the game is seen as a unique advantage in geopolitical battles for influence.

PNG is currently negotiating for its own team to join the league in a groundbreaking, Australian-funded deal, with both countries’ prime ministers touting it as a relationship-building exercise.

But as Australia takes sports diplomacy to the Pacific, former World Vision Australia CEO Tim Costello is worried it’s promoting a damaging part of sports culture.

“It really devastates me that we’re exporting to PNG, and the Pacific, our gambling addiction,” Mr Costello said from Port Moresby.

Studies show two in five Australians gamble weekly, losing approximately $25 billion per year, making Australia the world leader in gambling losses (per capita).

Rugby league fandom burns more intensely in PNG, a country where some 40 per cent of citizens live below the poverty line.

“It does expose our people to be manipulated and taken advantage of,” Mr Aitsi said.

Mr Costello, a longtime anti-gambling campaigner, said he was worried that betting firms could gain further access to vulnerable communities if a PNG team debuts in the competition.

“Put gambling and NRL together in PNG and the Pacific — far greater poverty, far greater losses, far greater suicides, domestic violence and crime,” he said.

In response, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said Australia did not own “the global sport of rugby league” and that Papua New Guinea was “not a passive recipient of Australian culture or exports”.  

“Papua New Guinea is a sovereign nation, with its own deep history with rugby league and its own laws,” he said. 

“The NRL, as a participant in Papua New Guinean society, is extremely respectful of both.

How punters are lured in

On the busy streets of Port Moresby, Clepas Busongu earns a living selling tipping guides to rugby league fans.

“I began photocopying the guides and started doing the rounds because the demand for these guides is high,” he said.

“Because a lot of people are now betting on the NRL.”

Mr Busongu said he’s not employed by the bookmakers, but his work is helping attract punters like Elice Wapung to betting shops across the city.

“My kids brought the tipping paper home and showed me this is how much you would win,” she said.

Ms Wapung sells betel nut, cigarettes and soft drinks across the road from Pacific Racing & Sports Betting, one of about 10 betting shops in Port Moresby.

She estimated that she has spent between 6,000 – 8,000 kina ($2,000 — $3,000) on rugby league bets, but said she hadn’t yet won big.

Outside Boroko Betting Centre, punter Thomas James said he believed small bets could lead to big wins.

“That’s why you’ll see older men, young men – all of us. We come here.”

Mr James said he was trying to win back 500 kina ($200) he had lost recently.

“I still keep coming back here, I must win back that money.”

A ‘time bomb’

Dr Uma Ambi, director of the PNG Directorate of Social Change and Mental Health Services, said problem gambling was a “time bomb” for PNG.

“In the process of winning, most of the time they are losing the money,” Dr Ambi said.

“It becomes a habit which is … having an impact personally and also in the family, in their finances and in their mental health.”

The mental health expert said increasing gambling was a symptom of a depressed society with “nothing else to do”.

“They get on the drink and at the same time they can go to a pub drink and it’s accessible.”

There’s little research on PNG’s relationship with gambling, but its effects are well understood in Australia where it has been linked to poor mental and physical health, bankruptcy, fraud, relationship breakdown, family violence and suicide.

Mr Costello warned that Papua New Guineans are even more at risk of harm.

“PNG residents are much poorer than Australians and what we know is the greatest losses in Australia happen in the poorest areas,” he said.

But in PNG there are fewer guardrails and support services to tackle problem gambling and addiction.

“The National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) is really responsible for managing and perhaps trying to address some of these social issues,” Mr Aitsi said.

The NGCB is the gambling regulator under the Gaming Control Act, but Mr Aitsi said both the agency and legislation have failed to tackle the rise of NRL gambling.

Mr Aitsi also said the regulator had an unhealthy relationship with the industry.

“The National Gaming Control Board receives revenues from the industry, so it’s beneficial for them to grow the industry.”

The NGCB did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Last year, the organisation reaffirmed its commitment to “ensure regulatory and best practice within the gaming industry” and “promote responsible gaming to minimise adverse impact on the society”.

The body had previously been criticised for backing plans to build a casino in Port Moresby, with its former chairman saying the positives far outweighed the negatives.

Foreign-owned betting companies such as Bet365 already have an online gambling presence in PNG, and Mr Aitsi said the country needed “to be careful” about opening the door to more through rugby league.

For its part, the Bet365 website notes its commitment to responsible gambling and states that the company “takes its responsibility to prevent underage gambling very seriously”.

The PNG NRL bid did not respond to questions about ruling out gambling sponsorship for a future PNG team.

Its CEO, Andrew Hill, has previously said a PNG side would be “the most well-supported” team in the league and has been courting potential corporate sponsors. 

Mr Aitsi said there were no laws preventing gambling companies from sponsoring the team. 

Political unwillingness to act

Mr Costello called on the PNG government to clamp down on gambling ads.

“They grab children’s minds and say NRL and gambling go together,” he said.

“That’s the next generation of children who are going to be addicted.”

According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, a majority of Australians believe the high saturation of sports gambling ads has normalised gambling among children.

Terupo Apawa, a pastor and board member at a Port Moresby school, said rugby league gambling was “quite damaging” for children and he had seen it result in fights and drinking.

“When you walk around, you will actually see students getting tips and there is no restriction in that area,” he said.

“Kids can go in [to bookmakers] and place their bets and that’s something that we need to police.”

Despite a ban on domestic TV ads, Mr Aitsi said fans are still exposed to gambling promotions through rebroadcasts on Telstra subsidiary Digicel.

He also said there was a lack of willingness from politicians to limit the gambling industry because it might upset their working-class base.

“Individuals that are probably the worst affected by problem gambling are the ones that are more active in terms of the electoral process and so the politicians do not want to damage that support,” he said.

Powes Parkop, governor of the National Capital District, said he believed NRL gambling and community sweepstakes were providing financial relief in the cost-of-living crisis.

“In these tough economic times, people are trying to increase their income source … so it [gambling] brings some immediate benefit,” he said.

“I don’t really want to curb it because it keeps our young people, and people in the community, going for a while.

“But it can be disruptive too, so it’s the balance we have to make.”

Mr Parkop said there was a binary question that needed to be answered.

“Parliament [needs to] really decide – is gambling good or not? And then we make a conscious decision.”

The PNG government was contacted for comment but did not respond.

Dr Ambi said there needed to be a multi-agency approach to tackle underage gambling and said parents should “take responsibility” to educate children about the risks of gambling.

And it still remains unclear whether a local PNG team will actually join the NRL.

But little thought appears to have been given to how it could fuel a growing gambling problem, in a loosely regulated environment, where there are shortening odds of addiction rates growing. 

“The country is in crisis, the value of the Kina has dropped, the price of goods is too high and life is hard,” said keen punter Andrew Mandakey. 

“People are interested in gambling to find some luck.”