WHATEVER the solution to the AFL's vexed issue of betting, League chief executive Gillon McLachlan is adamant it is not prohibition.
McLachlan admits there is some unease within the AFL about whether the League and its clubs should benefit from betting revenue, given the well-known social problems of gambling addiction.
But he added that there was a balance on issues such as gambling advertising at matches.
McLachlan said the AFL had worked with TV broadcasters so there were no live odds shown while the game was being played.
"People's views are different – a number of people have very strong views about wagering," he told ABC radio on Sunday.
"I have a view that is not universal around the AFL ... that things that are legal and part of our game, our job is then to contextualise that.
"I'm also real about wagering - we are better off having relationships with wagering companies than not because we get access to information.
"We can protect the integrity of our competition."
McLachlan added the revenue from gambling sponsorship helped the game's growth but said it was an issue debated "reasonably regularly" at League headquarters.
He also said there is evidence that betting habits are changing, rather than more people are gambling on sport.
"The data basically is that betting is not growing, it's just skewing from racing across to sport," he said.
"The runaway train that people are talking about is not reflected in the numbers, (they're) referring to a change.
"Maybe that means there's a different profile of the people who are betting.
"I'm not in denial of the problem ... the solutions are not as easy as people would think.""
Meanwhile, McLachlan reiterated his his support for the League's revamped illicit drugs policy after a week of debate sparked by a report that up to 11 Collingwood players had tested positive to illicit substances in the off-season.
"There's a fair stick there," he said.
"The first player who has a second strike and misses four games ... will have a very tough time of it.
"That's a significant deterrent, we hope."
And he was full of praise for banned former Essendon player Brent Prismall, who spoke candidly on Saturday of the "massive level of deception" he felt took place in the Bombers' 2012 supplements regime.
Prismall is one of 34 past and present Bombers serving backdated two-year doping bans for using the banned drug thymosin beta-4.
"He (Prismall) spoke beautifully and directly - a lot of all the 'noise' peeled off and the the stuff that's been going on, the different views over the last few years," McLachlan said.
"We got to the essence of it, which was a group of young men in the end don't know what happened to them.
"That's completely unsatisfactory.
"He talked of that in a pretty raw and direct way."
From the time the scandal became public in early 2013, McLachlan said he has backed the players.
"I have a view about how footy clubs work and culture," he said.
"I saw what the players did to try to be ahead of that and the questions they asked in the lead-up.
"I've seen all the documentation and emails and things and I know, in my view, fundamentally, they were let down.
"So I don't blame them, I never have."
