New research from the federal government’s Australian Gambling Research Centre shows that a third of those with gambling problems report being violent to someone else, often children and family. 

It is all fine for our political leaders to talk the talk on family violence but talking about it is not tackling it.

We already knew some of the reasons for family violence, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, break-up of relationships and so on, but this is the first time we have has concrete evidence that gambling is also very much to blame.

It is not good enough and much, much more has to be done to not only help those with gambling issues but also family members who have to face the consequences.

Gambling is becoming easier by the day in this country with overseas online start-ups and sports betting taking over from more traditional ways of losing your money.

Government restrictions on sports betting advertising have failed and young men in particular are becoming attracted to gambling on mobile devices.

The AFL, the NRL and other sporting organisations actively seek out commercial deals with online gambling agencies to make money for themselves at the expense of ordinary people and it is plainly wrong.

We are sitting idly by and watching as a new generation of tech-savvy youngsters are being seduced into gambling. 

It is not that hard to become addicted to gambling and once you’re hooked it is almost impossible to turn your life around.

Instead of letting influential gambling interests run roughshod over communities by encouraging people to punt we should be making it harder for them.

The problem there of course is that governments also take a generous cut which they now can’t do without. It is a sick system that only benefits the rich and powerful.