SYDNEY - Australian politicians were gifted about A$245,000 ($147,000) in match tickets over nearly two years by the country's most popular sporting leagues as part of a lobbying campaign against a proposed ban on advertising of online gambling, according to Reuters calculations based on government documents.

    Lobbying by the gambling industry against the ban has been reported previously in media but the calculation of the total value of tickets declared by politicians in the parliamentary gift register shows the role played by sporting bodies and provides a dollar amount for the first time.     Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had promised a crackdown on gambling advertising following a 2023 report by his government that recommended a "comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling".

    But he took the issue off the legislative agenda late last year and has left it to be considered by a new parliament to be formed following a May 3 general election that his party is tipped to win by a narrow margin. Polls show that three-quarters of Australians want a ban.

    "We know vested interests have been lobbying hard to prevent a ban and the level of soft diplomacy revealed by this analysis of declared gifts to politicians is deeply concerning," said David Pocock, an independent senator.

    "It is appalling that 18 months after the landmark report into online gambling harm, and after a full term of a Labor government, the prime minister has failed to take any meaningful action to ban gambling advertising."

    Albanese and the AFL did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The NRL declined comment.

Such lobbying is not illegal in Australia but individual gifts over worth over A$300 received by parliamentarians must be reported to the prime minister's office, which maintains the parliamentary gift register, a public database.

It shows that politicians from both Australia's main parties received 312 free tickets between June 28, 2023, when the government report recommended a ban on online gambling advertisements, and March 28 this year when parliament was dissolved.

There was no price ascribed to the tickets but Reuters calculated their value based on the cheapest corporate box seat. The calculations were verified by Hunter Fujak, senior lecturer in sports management at Deakin University, and Tim Harcourt, chief economist at the University of Technology, Sydney's Centre fo...