GMHBA Stadium will be the first AFL Stadium that hosts regular games to be gambling advertising free.
Starting with next week’s home clash with Melbourne, the Cats have made the decision to not promote gambling companies across its LED, static and big screen advertising.
Speaking to The Age, Cats chief executive Brian Cook said the club’s decision was made around aligning values with activities.
“It's extremely important for our club to be gambling and gaming free," Cook said.
"Simply from a visual perspective it is a good view. It’s an agreed variation of the contract. The only gambling activity we will have at our club including match day and non-match day will be at Wyndham (pokies)."
The club operates their LED advertising at GMHBA Stadium in conjunction with TechFront who receive 20% of the advertising space. In discussions with TechFront the two organisations agreed to no longer advertise any gambling operations which had previously made up approximately one-third of TechFront’s 20% share.
The aim to remove the gambling advertising had been set to come into effect by the 2020 season but had been brought forward by a year.
The club also has an existing partnership with the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation whose research suggests that 65% of Victorians believe young people think betting on sport is normal.
“When young people see excessive sports betting promotion it can seem like gambling is normal, and that sport is all about the odds, not the game,” VRGF chief Shane Lucas said.
“This makes it seem like sports betting is a safe activity that carries.”
The club will look to finalise the sale of its Brook on Sneydes venue within a year.
"We have been in the market of selling [The Brook's pokies and business] for over a year and we do have some interested people, we have been going through due diligence for a long time." Cook said.