New studies into gambling habits across the nation have shown the number of Australians taking up online gambling has increased despite post-pandemic gambling levels remaining relatively steady.
Data has also shown more riskier levels of gambling among those who like to take a punt.
The study from The Australian National University (ANU) used data collected between April 2019 and January 2024.
Participants were asked about their gambling activity over the past 12 months, as well as their general well-being.
Lead author Aino Suomi said the study provided an important snapshot of Australian gambling habits.
In the past 12 months, Ms. Suomi says the number of individuals gambling at risky levels increased from 11.6 percent to 13.6 percent.
“This means a larger proportion of individuals who gamble are experiencing harm,” she said.
“Our data also suggests a move away from venue-based gambling to activities that are readily available online, such as sports betting.”
Race betting was one of the less popular forms of gambling on the scale, however, with 46.8 percent of Australians buying lottery tickets in 2024, followed by raffles, scratchies, poker machines, and racing.
The most common groups of people likely to get involved with gambling were older people, men and people with lower levels of education.
“We saw a substantial decline in gambling participation rates in the midst of the pandemic, from 65.6 percent in 2019 to 53.5 percent in 2021, in part likely due to a lack of access to gambling venues,” Ms. Suomi said.
“While these rates now seem to have stabilised again, online gambling has exponentially increased and should now be considered one of the main gambling platforms.
“The unlimited access to online gambling has the potential to cause real harm if not properly addressed.”
In a separate report using the same survey data, the ANU team also looked at how many Australians were negatively affected by someone else’s gambling.
Roughly 1.2 million adults, or 5.3 percent of the total adult population, reported being personally affected by someone else’s gambling in the past 12 months.
“Individuals who were affected by someone else’s gambling tended to be younger (aged 18 to 24), earning a lower income, experiencing problems related to their own gambling, and dealing with loneliness or psychological distress,” Ms. Suomi said.
“If we have more data on this group of ‘affected others,’ we can help understand how to best support them.”
Australians Love to Gamble
Research by CQUniversity Professor Matthew Rockloff, in conjunction with Professor Nerilee Hing, Professor Matthew Browne, Associate Professor Alex Russell, and expert Hannah Brajkovich, revealed Australians were the world’s most prolific gamblers.Research showed Australians lose around $25 billion (US$16 billion) annually to gambling, which is more than twice as much per capita as Singapore, which has the world’s second-highest gambling rate.
Ms. Hing said population-level harm from gambling in Australia was on a par with alcohol consumption.
Apps Make It Easier for Kids
Ms. Hing also said it was important to keep up to date on the various forms of gambling because it was also being worked into online video games.The CQUniversity data showed online and smartphone platforms were leading some people into gambling. These people confessed they would never have gambled if they had to go to a hotel or TAB to do so.
“Using their phone to bet often means they can more easily keep the habit hidden, if they realise it is impacting on their well-being or attracting the concern of people around them,” Ms. Hing said.
Studies have shown that around 40 percent of children aged 12 to 17 had played video games with gambling-related content.
“These platforms very much look and feel like traditional gambling, and things like pokies apps and lucky-dip ‘loot boxes’ in gaming have similar addictive qualities as traditional gambling,” Ms. Hing said.
“And we know gamers who buy loot boxes are more likely to gamble, including with some of the in-game items that they win in loot boxes.
“That study paved the way to explain to parents and young people what a dangerous gambling product looks like, and for instance, how buying loot boxes is something a player can do over and over at a fast pace, with no limit on the spend, much like a pokie machine.”
