Aussies Gambling at Risky Levels Hits 6-Year High

[stadus]

Just saw this survey ... around 1 in 5 Australians (19.4%) are now gambling at risky levels, which is the highest in six years.
What’s crazy is overall gambling has gone down, but the ones who do gamble are taking bigger risks, and a lot of that is happening online.

Lotteries are still big, but online sports betting is growing super fast, especially with younger people who have easy access through apps.
The government was supposed to tighten gambling ads, but they delayed reforms until 2025… so the problem keeps rising.

what do you think is the main driver for this?

[lovesmayfamilis]

From what I've read about Australia, slot machines are ubiquitous, as the press puts it, "on every corner." Therefore, it's quite difficult for people to resist gambling; on the contrary, young people will inevitably continue to play, and thus, gambling addiction will grow year after year. The government planned to introduce cashless payments for gambling to track the most addicted gamblers, but these plans won't come into effect until 2028. By then, effective regulations will likely need to be developed, as it's no secret that forcing a gambling addict to give up their habit in the internet age is quite difficult.

[Oshosondy]

what do you think is the main driver for this?

Lovesmayfamilis has a good point. Another main reason are gambling ads. The third reason are friends telling friend about it.

From what I've read about Australia, slot machines are ubiquitous, as the press puts it, "on every corner." Therefore, it's quite difficult for people to resist gambling

Sport betting has also got common in Australia. Modernization is the common reason most people are gambling today. More people joined to make money and they risk more. At the end, they lose as usual.

[Maslate]

It’s definitely the ads, since those will always stay in our mind and tempt us to gamble. It’s like telling our brain, “hey, time to gamble.” But with that data, what I want to know is were there any reports showing the negative effects? Like gambling addiction increasing in that country, leading to violent crime or financial struggles? If there’s none, then maybe that data shouldn’t automatically be considered as risky gambling. I read the article, but I didn’t really see anything about crime being connected.

[Natalim]

If this is already at a concerning level, then the government really needs to step up and fix the regulations. Limiting gambling ads would be a good start. In fact, it was already done in the Philippines, they first unlinked gambling sites or apps from payment apps, and then penalized celebrities who were promoting illegal gambling sites.

Not sure what the government action on this tough, since this is just based on a survey, and we don’t really know how reliable that is.

[joeperry]

I think government do have a good revenue related to gambling and that's actually one of the reasons why it spreads in Aussies. I think the ads contribute to the addiction and spread familiarity with gambling but I think, one another factor is how easy a player or person/any age can access the gambling site and play. I personally saw this firsthand. What effect does it have on the person or their family? It’s not good. I saw a hardworking father who earns a small income, yet he tries to gamble it in the hope of doubling it, and most of the time, he loses.

[bakasabo]

What about this topic we had not so long time ago? australia's weird gambling culture. From that topic it can be learned that Australia encourage gambling, now they are worried about level risk. Indeed Australia is weird towards gambling. Sports betting is getting more and more popular there, and they seemed to be fine with it. And now its "OMG risk level hit 6y high". Do people in government change all the time in Australia, if they are so inconsistent towards gambling?

[TastyChillySauce00]

Honestly, it's hardly surprising me as gambling is very normalised in AU. The gambling ads on AU is pretty massive and aggressive. It seems many can't resist to the gambling ads that often appears even you played a game. Guess what? It's all because how easy to access the gambling sites with our smart phone these days. Even when it's getting banned, and it takes a few seconds just to bypass it.

[Charles-Tim]

Honestly, it's hardly surprising me as gambling is very normalised in AU. The gambling ads on AU is pretty massive and aggressive. It seems many can't resist to the gambling ads that often appears even you played a game. Guess what? It's all because how easy to access the gambling sites with our smart phone these days. Even when it's getting banned, and it takes a few seconds just to bypass it.

Not just in most countries that gambling is legal, but almost in all continents that gambling is legal, the government care most about the taxes that they are earning from gambling and not gambling regulations. They regulate gambling but not fully in the way they supposed to. In my country, you will see gambling ads on signboards, TVs and YouTube skit markers video.

[danherbias07]

Yeah, sports betting may be the main factor here. The sports even outside their country are growing, and they cannot just be ignored. Then, there are the advertisements, which are also a problem in many countries, not just Australia. They keep popping out every time we watch either the popular livestreaming application or the local TV channels.

Plus, this is just a survey. There could be more. Some of them may have lied with their answers. Gamblers. 

[Taskford]

Just saw this survey ... around 1 in 5 Australians (19.4%) are now gambling at risky levels, which is the highest in six years.
What’s crazy is overall gambling has gone down, but the ones who do gamble are taking bigger risks, and a lot of that is happening online.

Lotteries are still big, but online sports betting is growing super fast, especially with younger people who have easy access through apps.
The government was supposed to tighten gambling ads, but they delayed reforms until 2025… so the problem keeps rising.

what do you think is the main driver for this?

This is what happen if the country had weak gambling regulation. Maybe there's corruption happening in that industry that's why government seems cannot do something to fight gambling addiction in their country.

Currently they are leading on gambling and addiction https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-03/why-australia-is-addicted-to-gambling/104299376 and its so worse for their young generation if government will not do anything in this issue.

I think the driver for this is the aggressive advertisement and to bad since it looks like the target of this gambling operators are the vulnerable individual and young people.

[NewRanger]

If this is already at a concerning level, then the government really needs to step up and fix the regulations. Limiting gambling ads would be a good start. In fact, it was already done in the Philippines, they first unlinked gambling sites or apps from payment apps, and then penalized celebrities who were promoting illegal gambling sites.

Not sure what the government action on this tough, since this is just based on a survey, and we don’t really know how reliable that is.

Yes, the digital age is indeed unstoppable, and online games are quite easily accessible. It's just that the patterns are different: older people prefer conventional games like lotteries or pokies, while younger people prefer sports or esports.

While advertising may not be the primary driver of addiction, I see it as more of a psychological factor, especially when it comes to income. It's possible that residents there have relatively higher incomes, allowing them to spend more money on things like hanging out with friends. Another reason is that gambling has long been legal, making it a common pastime for them. So, I think it would be a bit complicated if the government actually made efforts to minimize it, as it has been legal from the start.

[yhiaali3]

I understand why the prevalence of gamblers is increasing, gambling is on the rise, and even addiction is on the rise, but honestly, I don't understand why the percentage of gamblers at risky levels is increasing. I expected the exact opposite: the percentage of gamblers would increase and the percentage of dangerous gambling would decrease.

I don't know the reason, but I suspect the main reason is the spread of online gambling, especially crypto casinos, which offer a great deal of privacy and easy deposit and withdrawal options. This is in addition to young people's desire to earn more money to meet the growing demands of modern life.

[EluguHcman]

what do you think is the main driver for this?

According to the ANU survey lead by Associate Professor Aino Suomi, the cause of that was due to online gambling provisions which gives individuals in their respective and comfort zones the privilege to gamble and keeping Privacies and I agree to that because, on-line gambling has made lot of people too relaxed and due to accessibility and privacy, lot of vulnerables especially underages finds every means to own account online just to gamble and are liable to gamble sporadically and consistently even while loosing more than affordable.

So, this tendencies is enough to cause that spike of the overall concerns of the Australians and the reports of their gambling risk level.

[rdluffy]

As always, I would really like to hear the opinion of someone who lives in Australia, so we can get a good insight from someone who is actually in the country
I don't know if it will appear, but that percentage alone of gamblers is quite high, 19.4% 

The other day I saw some news about Australia banning and prohibiting unlicensed services
I've seen news since last year that the country would be trying to ban betting ads, but I don't know if the government there is very strict or if there is any lobbying in that regard

[swogerino]

That is showing one or two things, it is either that those people are extremely unhappy with their salary or financial status overall or they have a genetic love for gambling. I think it must be the first thing, their financial status as this definitely leads towards taking a lot of risk in trying to improve it though a lot of times ends really bad with a lot of people going further south than they expect. I think in such situation are a few things critical to happen and the first is that the government should intervene with some measures, then a lot of awareness programs should be massively ongoing in any part of the country and this should be the bare minimum. If they are started to go live then I think some changes will be seen already in the short term.

[Akbarkoe]

Just saw this survey ... around 1 in 5 Australians (19.4%) are now gambling at risky levels, which is the highest in six years.
What’s crazy is overall gambling has gone down, but the ones who do gamble are taking bigger risks, and a lot of that is happening online.

Lotteries are still big, but online sports betting is growing super fast, especially with younger people who have easy access through apps.
The government was supposed to tighten gambling ads, but they delayed reforms until 2025… so the problem keeps rising.

what do you think is the main driver for this?

The main booster is that the slot machine has a growing population making it easier for someone to gamble anytime and anywhere because they have a lot of availability.

In my opinion the government must limit this, if not, it will be very, very difficult to control, the government must apply tighter limits so that their citizens do not enter into excessive gambling scope.

[hyudien]

As explained by several members regarding gambling in Australia, it is a fact that gambling companies have massively placed numerous slot machines in every corner of public places, coupled with the ease of access to online casinos. Furthermore, the lure of easy money is another factor. This cannot be tolerated by the local government, as it will have significant long-term consequences. Although they profit from this industry, it pales in comparison to the growing number of victims of addiction. The Australian government needs to balance this in one way or another to ensure they remain profitable and its citizens continue to gamble responsibly.

[crwth]

I never knew that there were a lot of Aussies getting active in gambling. It appears that actions are being taken to address their problem, and I hope they will be effective. Perhaps there are numerous awareness campaigns underway, and perhaps they have programs in place to prevent this risky behavior.

Recent research has been published with this.

https://aifs.gov.au/media/national-gambling-study-finds-more-australians-harmed-amid-rising-participation

[jcojci]

The freedom to access the internet allows them can visit online gambling. Even if their government blocks the gambling access, they can use a VPN to access so that will not stop them from playing gambling.  They are attracted to come to online gambling because of the ads that they can see it easily from many websites. Starting from curiosity and making them stay longer in online gambling. So that makes slowly become addicted to gambling without realizing it. The gambling problems keep rising if the government doesn't take preventive measures by educating their people or tightening gambling ads.