Australian communities willing to take on gambling

Research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies has looked into consumer attitudes towards the prevalence of gambling and gambling advertisements in Australia. Led by Rebecca Jenkinson, Executive Manager at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and fellow colleagues, the survey looked into the rate of Australian consumer participation in gambling and how they felt about advertisement in general.

According to the research, 73% of Australianadultsgambled at least once in the 12 months leading to the survey. However, 38% did so on weekly basis. More worryingly, the survey established that out of the people who gambled, close to half of them were at risk of developing more serious issues with gambling, or suffering gambling-related harm.

Jenkinson’s team puts that number at 46%. The survey's results were based on 1,765participants. Researchers dug into consumer habits, such as what people gambled on the most and how they felt about current rates of gambling availability and gambling advertisement.

Lottery and scratch card products were amongst the most common forms of gambling, the survey informed, with 64% of respondents confirming to have participated in this type of gambling. Horse racing was another popular option with 38% of respondents confirming they gambled on the ponies. Another 34% reported placing a bet on sports, and 33% said that they were gambling on pokies.

A majority of consumers were betting on multiple products, meaning two or more, with 70% of respondents confirming to have done so. The median rate of gambling would vary, but consumers were spending around AUD$83-AUD$93 ($55-$61) daily when gambling. The survey expectedly discovered that men were more prolific gamblers than women, and willing to participate in the majority of products.

Men would also gamble more often during the surveyed period, the research found. Some 77% of all respondents said that they saw way too many gambling opportunities available. Another 68% agreed that at its current level, gambling posed a threat to families and relationships, and 59% agreed that mass gambling should be discouraged.

Another snippet of the survey focused entirely on gambling advertisement prevalence in sports broadcasts. According to 69% of Australians, there was too much advertising already, describing it as "too common." Another 60% of Australians agreed that because of how common gambling advertisements were, sports had become less family-friendly.

Another risk factor to the current rates of advertising was that gambling ads normalized the activity for children, and 46% said that they were finding sports broadcasts less entertaining these days due to the number of gambling ads there are.

The survey said that very few consumers thought that it was appropriate for a sports betting company and a gambling company to maintain commercial partnerships, and the majority of people agreed that a ban that restricts gambling advertisements before certain hours on radio, TV, live-streams, on-demand, social media, or sponsored content should be restricted.

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