The long-held suspicion that high per capita expenditure in poker machine venues leads to high rates of problem gambling can now be confirmed by new research.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
The more money spent per capita on pokies in a venue, the higher the rate of gambling problems in that venue. This is the straightforward conclusion of our research recently published in the journal Addiction…
In the lead up to the World Cup, there has been speculation across the media that World Cup matches might be fixed, including reports from the UK’s National Crime Agency that a warm-up friendly between…
According to a new report, academic research into gambling is heavily biased, and controlled by industry and government.
AAP/Paul Jeffers
Earlier this month, a team of British anthropologists from Goldsmiths College of the University of London published a report about the mundane, if very lucrative, world of Big Gambling and the cadre of…
The third season of Breaking Bad, the American TV drama series about a crystal meth dealer in Albuquerque, contains a key scene about the business side of an emerging crime empire. Here, the unscrupulous…
The Cameron government’s reported willingness to curb some of the excesses of electronic casino games in betting shops (fixed odds betting terminals) is to be welcomed. Yet without far-reaching reforms…
Black or red (or zero), the odds stay the same regardless of previous spins.
Mark Seton/Flickr (cropped)
Imagine yourself, a picture of sartorial elegance and sipping champagne from a crystal flute, in Le Grande Casino at Monte Carlo. It is a Monday night – in fact, the date is August 18, 1913 – and you are…
It is easy – and inaccurate – to suggest that Aboriginal gambling is just one more problem associated with remote Indigenous communities that needs to be fixed.
Martin Young
“Aboriginal gambling” has become something of a hot-button issue in recent years. A number of academic research articles have documented the “risk factors” for Aboriginal people that increase their likelihood…
Very little is known about the impact of gambling in regional and remote places in Australia, such as Alice Springs.
Bruce Doran
Although Australia is often portrayed as a nation of gamblers, we still know relatively little about the extent to which gambling affects our society. One blind spot in our knowledge is the impact of gambling…
It’s hardly surprising the Coalition would baulk at costly regulation in the gambling industry.
Flickr/Marionzetta
The future of Australia’s pokies pre-commitment scheme – which enables players to set a limit on how much they’re prepared to lose – is in doubt, with Labor likely to support the Coalition’s move to repeal…
Casino staff at the new Crown Sydney Hotel Resort in Barangaroo will be forced to breathe secondhand cigarette smoke.
Thomas Hawk
In November 2019, James Packer’s Crown Resorts VIP exclusive gambling and hotel complex will open at Barangaroo on the Sydney foreshore. In a disappointing development, the New South Wales government has…
Football’s popularity in Asia has fuelled illegal betting.
Eugene Hoshiko/AP
In the run up to the London Olympics, Jacques Rogge, then president of the International Olympic Committee, made a surprising statement. Doping, he said, was no longer the number one threat to the integrity…
Singapore’s Marina Bay is viewed as a role model for casino precincts.
Slack12/Flickr
Tim Mazzarol, The University of Western Australia and Antoine Musu, The University of Western Australia
Last month Queensland Premier Campbell Newman called for expressions of interest to develop a major integrated resort casino precinct within the Brisbane CBD. The vision is for a new casino surrounded…
Gai Waterhouse wants everyday punters to ‘live the dream’.
Marianna Massey/AAP
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be the part owner of a Melbourne Cup winner? Horse trainer Gai Waterhouse says you could be, by investing in a new company called “Gai Live the Dream” (GLD). The “live the dream…
Despite the known social harms of problem gambling, Australian state governments are allowing more casinos to be built and expanded.
AAP/Dan Peled
A new wave of casino liberalisation is sweeping Australia. The Queensland state government has announced that it is seeking expressions of interest for a casino development in Brisbane, and that it is…
The Coalition’s policy to combat problem gambling is treatment focused, excludes potential online competitors and makes no funding commitment. What influenced its creation?
AAP/Dan Peled
The Coalition has released its policy “to help problem gamblers” under that very title. If the betting markets are any guide, the Coalition is poised to win government on September 7, so the likelihood…
The psychiatrists’ bible, the DSM-5, recently added ‘gambling disorder’ to its list of ‘behavioural addictions’. But how true is its definition, and should it be changed?
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Since the issue of problem gambling was placed under the national spotlight by the Productivity Commission in 1999, we have witnessed ongoing public debate about Australia’s gambling industries. The commission…
What are the odds? Bookmaker Tom Waterhouse has sold his online gambling business to UK giant William Hill for over $30 million.
AAP/Dean Lewins
That bookmaker Tom Waterhouse has sold his eponymous company to British bookmaking powerhouse William Hill is no surprise. Waterhouse’s recent very public bid for recognition and market share was widely…
Recent problem gambling campaigns may implicitly advertise for the very product they are trying to warn consumers off.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
The radio spot begins with ex-rugby league star Nathan Hindmarsh discussing his struggles with gambling: People might have thought, “Nathan Hindmarsh he’s got it made, he’s got everything”, but in reality…
Backlash over the seemingly omnipresence of bookmakers advertising during sport - such as Tom Waterhouse - prompted a government ban on ads in certain situations.
AAP/Paul Miller
What are the odds? In the face of public pressure, prime minister Julia Gillard has given bookmakers an ultimatum regarding sporting events. If the bookies do not agree to a ban on gambling promotion during…
Children are vulnerable consumers and aren’t capable of making rational, informed choices.
AAP/Dan Peled
Have your children watched a footy match recently? Well, if they watched AFL on TV they also consumed about 50.5 separate episodes of sports betting marketing, from TV and stadium ads, to footy jumpers…
Professor of Economics and Finance. Director of the Betting Research Unit and the Political Forecasting Unit at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University