“Gambling is not a problem” for most Australians, study finds

For a vast majority of Australians “gambling is not a problem”, according to a major annual household study.

The social harms of gambling have been prevalent in Australia for quite some time which is why the Home Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) incorporated questions about gambling in 2015.

Most gambling studies are cross-sectional which means they are unable to soundly conclude the consequences of problem gambling.

The HILDA study aims to monitor the behaviour of Australian gamblers over a number of years. The results may provide ongoing evidence about the “different factors that both influence and are the consequence of gambling behaviours.”

Gambling maintains its prevalent status in 2017, with 39.1 percent of Australian adults (over the age of 18) reporting that they’ve participated in at least some form of gambling activity at least once a month.

The study reveals gambling is more popular with men (43.2 percent) than women (35.2 percent) and incidence also increases with age.

But according to the study, “gambling is not a problem” for “the vast majority of Australians – 92 per cent”.

“They either do not gamble at all or when they do their financial losses are not associated with any obvious economic, social or health problems,” the longitudinal study found.

The study asked the respondents to detail the average amount they would spend in a typical month on 10 gambling activities including scratchies, bingo, lottery, keno, private betting (playing at home with friends), poker, casino table games, pokies, betting on horses and greyhounds, and finally, sports betting.

Both land-based and online gambling is included.

Contrary to the arguments the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 proposes, including that Australians are gambling more and more at offshore casinos and betting sites, the most popular form of gambling is buying a lottery ticket.

The study found that almost 30 percent of Australians spent money on lottery games, such as Powerball, in a typical month.

Only eight percent of Australians spent money on the pokies, while six percent on the horses and greyhounds and just three percent on sports betting.

Problem gambling occurrence

Problem gambling is, of course, an issue which does occur in Australia and all around the world.

“For most Australians, gambling has few adverse consequences,” the study found.

But it also revealed that eight percent of Australian adults have experienced negative impacts from gambling with 60 percent of the group betting more than they can afford to lose.

Of this eight percent, around 1.5 percent of men and 0.8 percent of women reported having a gambling problem.

The percentage is quite small, but in retrospect, it does equate to around 200,000 people in Australia.

The results mirror the level of prevalence a survey in 1999 reported.

Additionally, the eight percent of the population – as mentioned above – have reported at least one negative gambling experience which equates to almost 1.4 million people.

The HILDA survey also shows that the most harmful forms of gambling are casino games, poker and private betting.

But it adds that just “1% or so of the population typically gamble in these ways monthly” suggesting that the “estimates of the harm incurred by these types of gambling are unreliable”.

The study found men, Indigenous Australians, people with lower levels of educational attainment, and the unemployed are most vulnerable to the negative impacts of gambling.

The study also states that while poor health does not impact whether one is likely to be a problem gambler, those with poor mental health “have a higher risk”.