On Wednesday 25th May, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou addressed the National Press Club. He spoke of many things, including the new $1.25 billion TV rights deal and his plans for expanding the game right across the country, wherever and whenever he can. He also spoke of Paul Roos. Former Sydney premiership coach Roos has landed himself in trouble for running on to the field during an under 16s game to intervene in a behind-the-play incident. The problem appears to be that he was the coach of one of the teams and he got involved.

Of the incident, Demetriou said this: “Having Paul Roos say that sort of activity on the field is unacceptable - you can absolutely do that - but you shouldn’t do it by running on to the field.”

It’s somewhat fitting that he should make this statement during his address, seeing as it was slap bang in the middle of Responsible Gambling Awareness Week, and his attitude towards Roos’ actions neatly sums up the AFL’s attitude towards gambling. Talk about it as much as you like, but for god’s sake don’t do anything about it.

Gambling is a touchy subject for Demetriou at the moment. His AFL has been criticised by Nick Xenophon for having a “narrow minded and blinkered” approach to gambling on AFL matches, and he also took the opportunity of his Press Club address to lob a salvo back at the Senator.

But the fact is that the AFL is surrounded by gambling in a variety of forms. It has insinuated itself into the game, the media coverage, the commentary and the clubs themselves. And for all the tough talk coming from Demetriou, AFL general Manager Adrian Anderson and the like, very little seems to be getting done about it.

Just how compromised is the AFL when it comes to gambling? For starters, there are the betting companies. The AFL lists Betfair and TAB Sportsbet among its official partners; most pages of their website include an ad for Betfair encouraging you to “Bet Now” and “Join Today”. It’s even worse at club level; of the seventeen clubs running around this year, only three don’t list an association with one or more betting companies amongst their sponsors. Several even have their own customised betting websites, powered by Betezy. And St Kilda have Centrebet as their major partner; just think of all those kids running around in their Centrebet Saints jumpers. You know who they’ll bet with when they grow up.

Drill past the surface of this proliferation of betting companies and we come to the murky world of exotic bets. Which player from either side will kick the first goal, gain the most disposals, kick the most goals, that sort of thing. The practice of exotic bets lays a sport wide open to cheating and match-fixing; just look at the recent no-ball scandal from the Pakistan cricket team.

The AFL is not immune to this, there have been allegations of confidential information about team line-ups being leaked, resulting in betting plunges on players who would normally attract little or no attention. The AFL’s reaction to the spectre of cheating in their ranks was swift: they called on the government to make it a criminal act, punishable by jail time. They have also reiterated their position that it is the responsibility of individual clubs to educate their players and monitor their behaviour. Not once have they suggested that they themselves should get involved, or move to end the practice of exotic betting; in fact, the opposite is true. They’ve adopted a “better the devil you know” stance: exotic bets will happen, so it’s better that it’s all out in the open rather than going underground. Funny how many gambling industry representatives make exactly the same claim.

Then there’s the media. Sports betting advertising has bludgeoned its way into every aspect of following the footy. Watch a game live and you’re treated to a constant stream of changing odds on the video scoreboards. There’s signage, and announcements, and even a comprehensive market breakdown in the footy record. Follow the game on TV or the radio and you get the commentators presenting the odds alongside the other vital statistics, often crossing to a betting company representative for the latest mail on what the market says. Every second ad break is about gambling. You simply cannot watch a game of Aussie Rules these days without exposing yourself to a sensory overload of sports betting information. The AFL have voiced their concern about this, and they had the perfect opportunity to do something about it during the recent TV rights negotiations... yet they did nothing.

And finally, there’s the mainstay of the gambling industry: poker machines. Most clubs now run one or more gaming venues, and while the pokies are not as entrenched in AFL culture as they are with their cousins, the NRL, that situation is changing fast. Poker machines may not have the supposedly-glamorous image of sports betting, but they’re a reliable source of income for the clubs... it’s just a shame it comes at the expense of the public.

Whichever way you look at it, the AFL and gambling are skipping hand-in-hand towards disaster. They are quick to hold up their players as role models for our youth, with their hospital visits, community camps and clinics in our schools, but they refuse to acknowledge that they, as the ruling body, have the same responsibility. By talking loudly while sitting on their hands, the AFL has legitimised gambling at every level. What they should be doing is reclaiming their sport before it becomes inextricably synonymous with betting and the taint of corruption that will inevitably stain the code. Sports betting is not the sport itself.

The AFL has the power and the money to break the ties that have been forged with the betting agencies. They could ban gambling-related sponsorships, and could even pick up the tab in the short-term while other sponsors were found. They could ensure that the game-day experience is all about the game, not the odds. They could flex their muscle to ensure the integrity of the code. They have the capacity; what they lack is the will.

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