Daanyal Saeed

How do you have an umpire who's also on the payroll of a gambling company?

The AFL's rationale is that he analyses racing.

He doesn't do...

And obviously there are a number of integrity scandals over the years involving brown lows, involving umpires and votes and so on.

The AFL were previously comfortable with it.

My understanding is they might be a little bit less comfortable now in AFL house.

But whether that leads to any change is another thing.

He's been reappointed for this weekend's game again between Gold Coast and Essendon.

And it's also worth noting that AFL umpires aren't full-time professionals.

So there is a necessity of umpires needing to earn a living wage by other means.

It's been a long-term debate in the AFL about making umpires full-time professionals.

And one of the things it would mitigate is situations like this in integrity concerns.

Yes, I think this debate is one of, like, fundamentally, when you sit down in the pub with a beer and you have this conversation with punters, they do see this as a debate around what gambling's relationship is like relative to sport.

And we've sort of seen the effects of it going unregulated in the United States, who sort of en masse...

deregulated sports betting over the last few years, and it has seen an explosion of A, of revenue, B, of just a complete change in how sport is presented in the United States.

And I would argue that most Australians don't necessarily want to see us go down that path.

And this is, I think, the politics of it that Anthony Albanese has relied on for a really long time.

And I don't think it...

it's the same anymore, is he said, oh, well, I want to protect the right of Australians to have a punt.

I endorse free choice for responsible adults.