NSW Government moves to ban gambling ads on public transport

The NSW Government has outlined plans to implement a sweeping ban on gambling advertising across all NSW Transport-owned and controlled assets, including trains, metro, buses, light rail, train stations, and ferry terminals.
Transport operates one of the largest portfolios of advertising assets across Australia, including 798 advertising boards at Sydney train stations, 49 road-facing digital billboards, ads on up to 3,711 urban buses, 76 trams, and across the Tangara train fleet.
“Gambling advertising has been a common sight on our public transport for a couple of years now, and I’m pleased our Government is taking action to remove it. Parents are rightly worried about the impact it has on their kids, so it’s not something that we think needs to be on our transport network,” said Minister for Transport Jo Haylen.
It comes just weeks after South Australia announced a similar ban on junk food advertising across state-owned transport assets.
https://www.mi-3.com.au/06-01-2025/sa-government-ban-junk-food-ads-public-transport-bid-tackle-obesity
The NSW ban extends to all casino, lottery, and online betting advertising, with the NSW Government to work with multiple advertising contract holders to implement the required changes over the next 12 months.
“With over 3,500 buses, close to 800 advertising assets at train stations, as well as advertising on light rail and trains, Transport’s advertising contracts are vast. Because of the scale it will take some time to implement this change, but we will be working closely with our contract partners over the next 12 months to get this done,” Haylen said.
Transport’s advertising suppliers must ensure that all advertising material complies with all applicable laws, accepted industry standards, and codes of conduct established by the advertising industry. There are additional rules for Transport’s contract holders, including a ban on political advertising on all assets.
Where assets are not owned by Transport, the NSW Government will work with the relevant entities to align their advertising with the gambling advertising ban. This move is part of a suite of reforms introduced by the Minns Labor Government to reduce gambling harm.
“Removing gambling advertising from public transport is another demonstration of the Minns Labor Government’s commitment to reducing gambling harm in NSW,” said Minister for Gaming and Racing, David Harris. “This move will reduce the public’s exposure to gambling advertising and builds on the suite of reforms the government has introduced over the past 20 months to reduce harmful impacts of gambling.”
More broadly, these reforms include reducing the statewide gaming machine entitlement cap, banning political donations from clubs with electronic gaming machines, reducing the cash input limit on new gaming machines, banning all external gambling signage in venues, conducting a trial of cashless gaming in pubs and clubs, and committing $100 million to harm minimisation.