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Aussie gambling study finds fewer players, more problems

A recent study conducted by the Australian government revealed that Aussies are gambling less than they were two years ago. That same study found that those folks who were still playing, were much more likely to be problem gamblers.

Online gambling, however, showed significant growth over that same period.

Australia’s National Survey of Interactive Gambling was conducted by the Central Queensland University and queried 15,000 Aussies about their gambling habits. Players were surveyed over the course of 2019 and 2020, so factors including new restrictions on gambling advertisements, and the pandemic were factors in the results.

The study’s most significant finding is that Australians are gambling a lot less than they were in 2010 when the first National Survey of Interactive Gambling was conducted. In 2010, 63.4 percent of respondents said they had gambled over the course of the last year. That number dropped to 56.9 percent on the most recent study.

Participation in online gambling, on the other hand, saw a significant increase over the last decade.  The study found that 17.5 percent of Australians had gambled online in the past year. That’s up from just 8.5 percent who answered the same way in 2010.

In a statement reported on by Inside Asian Gaming, Professor Nerilee Hing from CQUniversity’s Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory described the phenomenon saying, “This growth in online gambling has been driven by faster internet speeds, the convenience of betting on smartphone apps, extensive advertising and inducements, and new betting options like multi-bets.”

Unfortunately, the study also found the problem gambling, both online and land-based, increased significantly over the last decade. Overall, 1.23 percent of study participants would qualify as problem gamblers, that’s up from 0.6 percent in 2010.