Abstract
In 2016, the gambling habits of a sample of 3361 adults in the state of Victoria, Australia, were surveyed. It was found that a number of factors that were highly correlated with self-reported gambling frequency and gambling problems were not significant predictors of gambling frequency and problem gambling. The major predictors of gambling frequency were the degree to which family members and peers were perceived to gamble, self-reported approval of gambling, the frequency of discussing gambling offline, and the participant’s Canadian Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) score. Age was a significant predictor of gambling frequency for certain types of gambling (e.g. buying lottery tickets). Approximately 91% of the explainable variance in the participant’s PGSI score could be explained by just five predictors: Positive Urgency; Frequency of playing poker machines at pubs, hotels or sporting clubs; Participation in online discussions of betting on gaming tables at casinos; Frequency of gambling on the internet, and Overestimating the chances of winning. Based on these findings, suggestions are made as to how gambling-related harm can be reduced.
Highlights
Gambling is a common pastime and is found in all countries in the world, in some, such as the United Arab Emirates, Brunei and Cambodia, it is either illegal or highly restricted
The Online Research Unit (ORU) matched for age, sex, and location relative to the general Victorian population as determined by the demographic data supplied by the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey. (The data for the 2016 census had not yet been released when the survey was conducted)
Previous research has shown that a large number of factors are correlated with gambling frequency, it was unclear from that research to what extent those factors could predict gambling frequency or problem gambling
Summary
Gambling is a common pastime and is found in all countries in the world, in some, such as the United Arab Emirates, Brunei and Cambodia, it is either illegal or highly restricted. For most individuals, their gambling does not cause problems but for some individuals their gambling harms either themselves, their family or their friends. Their gambling does not cause problems but for some individuals their gambling harms either themselves, their family or their friends This harm can be financial, emotional or social. The rates of problem gambling are lowest in Europe, intermediate in North America and Australia and highest in Asia. The present study focussed on the state of Victoria, Australia, as a condition of its funding
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