By Duncan Murray

Australia’s biggest 20 superannuation funds hold $14.8 billion in gambling-related company stocks, which gambling reform campaigners say would horrify people if they only realised.

Little attention is being paid by the funds as to the harm gambling does to the community, according to a report commissioned by the Alliance for Gambling Reform released on Thursday.

The country’s biggest fund, Australian Super, has more than double the exposure to gambling stocks than others, with holdings of $4.9 billion.

The four funds with the biggest gambling-related equities after were identified as Australian Retirement Trust ($1.77 billion), Colonial First State ($1.46 billion), UniSuper ($1.11billion) and Aware Super ($0.94 billion).

Pokies behemoth Aristocrat Leisure is just one of the companies into which retirement funds are flowing.

Despite many funds having responsible investment policies, approaches to gambling-related risks remain “limited, inconsistent and largely inadequate”, according to chief executive of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Martin Thomas.

He believes many Australians would be shocked to learn how much of their money was being invested into the industry.

“There’s starting to be a realisation just of how socially damaging gambling is,” he said.

“We see bankruptcies, mental health issues, marriage break-ups.”

Harms from gambling are not consistently treated the same way as harms arising from other industries such as tobacco and alcohol, he said, with the latter routinely screened out of superannuation investments.

That’s despite Australians losing more money per capita than any other country – about $32 billion a year.

A spokesperson for Australian Super said with the exception of its Socially Aware option, the fund does not apply investment screens to gambling companies.

‘We invest to help members achieve their best financial position in retirement,” they said.

“‘We engage with certain ASX-listed companies either directly or with other investors to better understand their initiatives to deliver responsible gaming practices and appropriate governance practices.”

Mr Thomas called gambling a “blind spot” for superannuation companies.

Super funds could make more ethical choices about where they put their money, he said, noting gambling investment was a relatively small part of their overall investments which may range in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

“There is so much opportunity out there for them to do the right thing,” he said.

Mr Thomas urged those who were concerned to contact their super fund to find out how much they were investing in gambling.

“We’re not looking to ban gambling; we just think it’s a harmful legal adult product and should be regulated,” he said.

“But we do think it should be shunned by investment community, particularly super funds, particularly because we’re all made to contribute to these super funds.”