A recent report highlights the intimate link between NRL and gambling, raising concerns in Papua New Guinea (PNG) about the social impacts of the current plans for an Australian government supported bid to have a PNG NRL team. The Australian government’s planned $600 million bet on an NRL team in Papua New Guinea (PNG) aligns with its use of soft power through sports diplomacy. Tied to the narrative of ‘PNG’s national game’ it taps into a shared contemporary cultural phenomenon. Rugby league culture shapes life through NRL’s weekly fixtures, State of Origin annual rivalries, the annual Prime Ministers Cup, the Hunters campaign in the Queensland competition, and other associated activities. On the surface, it is an exciting gamble with potentially high returns. As with all Australian foreign spending, this is an investment in the name of Australian interests that will no doubt include carefully assessed risks, and costs and benefits analysis. While reports highlight risks concerning the safety of the mainly male NRL players in Port Moresby, there seems to be less public discussion about the potential risks of adverse gendered social impacts of this spend. Two related questions come to mind: Who stands to gain or lose from the potential increase in sports fuelled gambling that might spin-off from the deal? How might the combination of rugby league hype and gambling fuel already big challenges of violence and violence against women in PNG?
PNG’s changing betting landscape fuelled by a love of sports
In both PNG and Australia there is a link between sports and the lucrative gambling industry. The PNG’s Post Courier on 19th September 2024 front page or a simple internet search of images based on a search of betting in PNG speaks a thousand words about the link between sports and gambling. In Australia, there is currently a cultural war being battled over the sports arena; between the powerful gambling industry and its critics denouncing the pervasiveness of sports gambling advertisements in live and televised sports events.
Risk and risk-taking is part of all societies, including PNG. Papua New Guineans are no strangers to modern day gambling which is a popular activity throughout the country (see this book). For decades, in places like Port Moresby, Papua New Guineans have enjoyed socialising at betting shops where they place bets on international events. Popular Australian events like the Melbourne Cup and the State of Origin bring many parts of the city to a standstill. As this report highlights, the arrival of internet and mobile phones changed PNG’s betting landscape with a rise in online gambling, fuelled by ‘a love of sports’ and social media platforms where people post their wins enticing others to register on online betting platforms. In Australia, sports related gambling profits and revenue is lucrative. Gambling advertisements are a normalised aspect of the sports spectator experience. According to this report, “Australian sports betting turnover passes $50 billion per year” and this has been propelled by digital online gambling.
Gambling provides an important revenue stream for both governments. In PNG, this report highlights how the National Gaming Control Board has sets its eyes on the revenue from online gambling. According to this report in 2023, the PNG NGCB raked in K456 million in gambling revenues, an increase of K95 million on the previous year. In Australia, the NRL notes that in 2007 Australia governments took “$4 billion dollars in tax from gambling revenue”. These high stakes raise questions about how gambling revenues generated this deal be carved between the two countries? They also raise questions about the potential adverse impacts of this deal.
Links between sports, gambling and financial hardship and violence against women
There will be losers. According to various reports ( here and here) Australians lose up to $25 billions to gambling each year leading to calls for closer regulation of the gambling industry, including greater regulation of gambling advertisements during sports events. In Australia, NRL was taken to task this year by charities who alleged that State of Origin in Australia is a front for the liquor lobby with increased incidents of gendered violence reported during the games.
PNG faces grave challenges dealing with the widely acknowledged epidemic levels of GBV. It lacks adequate policing and support services. When it comes to rugby league Papua New Guineans are known to kill in the name of their State of Origin! For many years the PNG media have highlighted concerns about the increased levels of violence during State of Origin games. Concerns point out the links between State of Origin, gambling and violence against women, calling for the need to look “beyond the Origin fever”. Highlighting the extent to which Papua New Guineans are prepared to gamble, this story tells about two millionaire men who not only bet their vehicles on State of Origin, but they also bet their wives! Whether this is a hyper-sensationalised report aimed at highlighting the passion around State of Origin, or whether it is factual, the report makes the dramatic point that “what is important is the moral of the story which is that this Australian game drives ordinary men in PNG to extra-ordinary feats of madness”. The report goes on to highlight the problematic gendered links between NRL, gambling, alcohol abuse including injuries, killings and destruction of property. It notes a 2019 call by police for live broadcasts of State of Origin games to be banned. Another report from 2015 highlights how gambling leads to domestic violence because couples fight over financial issues. The report suggests that people resort to theft and corruption to recoup money after gambling losses. In 2015, according to this report, after the killing of youth during a State of Origin game, local police called for a ban of live coverage of the games.
The PNG National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender Based Violence notes that violence ‘is caused by a complex model of intersecting factors’ (p. 24). Such intersecting factors include cultural norms that shape men’s dominance and violent behaviour, and contemporary forces like sports related gambling and alcohol abuse, and financial hardship. For example, in our research exploring men’s perspectives on intimate partner violence, gambling, by either or both men and women, is one of the reasons that men provide for their perpetration of violence towards their intimate partners. In some cases, the man gambles the family budget, placing stress on the family. This incites the woman to ‘nag’ at him, triggering a violent reaction from the man to control her ‘nagging’. In other cases, the woman gambles the family budget and neglects to prioritise family needs. This angers the partner who resorts to violence out of frustration and/or to discipline her. Either way, irresponsible gambling by both men and women, leads to financial hardship and this triggers violence between couples. Cultural norms and a sense of entitlement to dominate women mean that most cases involve men being violent towards women. Our research also found that domestic violence and financial hardship, caused by factors like gambling and alcohol abuse, may lead to children withdrawing from school because the family cannot afford the basic fees, uniforms, transport costs to attend school, or because they are traumatised or feel stigmatized by family violence.
Sports diplomacy or cultural war?
At a time of heighted geopolitical rivalry, this soft power deal will likely proceed. The Australian and PNG governments should make use of research they have jointly supported which provide enough evidence to inform them that this bet involves a high gendered and social risk. They should also conduct and make publicly available an assessment of the potential adverse gender and social impacts of this deal. The deal should incorporate measures to prevent or respond to the negative impacts. It should not detract attention or funds away from efforts to address GBV, tribal violence and law and order in PNG. Considering the potential adverse gendered, social and racialized impacts of this deal will help, but not completely, to avoid repeating the mistakes of past bilateral deals such on those experienced during the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (see here for discussion).
The sports diplomacy part of this Australian government supported PNG NRL bid deal is clearer; many of us will be good sports out there cheering our teams! But are we entering an ill-thought-out gendered social rugby and gambling cultural war? I call it a cultural war because while rugby is a well-loved cultural activity in both countries, there will be battles, scars and big winners and big losers. The winners will most definitely be in predominantly white Australia, where some are already viewing PNG as a cash cow in terms of TV subscriptions; TV where gambling advertisements creep into every household. The greatest loss will be in PNG, aspiring to be the richest black Christian nation on planet earth, where the more vulnerable family members, who will most likely be women, children, disabled and the elderly, who deal with the aftermath as they recoil from the hype of punters, the wrath of bad losers and scramble for whatever remains can be found.