Hours before Gladys Berejiklian's mandated horse-race advertisement was projected onto the Opera House for the world to see, one stall in a lightly trafficked nook of a suburban Sydney shopping centre marked the focus of her government’s effort to warn of the risks of gambling on Tuesday, in the week set aside to do so.

After the Premier ordered the Sydney Opera House to carry branded advertising for Saturday’s $13 million Everest race, some have pointed out the irony that this week is also the state’s Responsible Gambling Awareness Week.

The government, too, might be embarrassed by the contrast. No minister has yet attempted to promote awareness of this awareness week.

And the sole event listed for Tuesday to raise awareness of “responsible gambling” was an information stall at the Campsie Centre shopping mall.