New South Wales Gambling Study

Posted on Dec 20, 2010 in Australia Casinos

The prevalence of gambling and problem gambling seems to be a bit of a concern in New South Wales. But the first steps towards dealing with this issue are underway. A tender has been called by Kevin Greene, the New South Wale’s Minister for Gaming and Racing. The tender has been called to conduct a study on the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling in NSW. The study will receive a hefty funding of AUS $250,000 from Responsible Gambling Fund. The study will interview about 10,000 Australian casino gamblers about their gambling habits over the last 12 months.

Other topics that will be studied will include the effect of technology on gambling habits. This will cover the effect of online gambling, mobile gambling and gambling using other hand-held devices and laptops.

A study was previously conducted by AC Nielsen in 2006 with 5000 respondents and this will serve a good comparison to the research that will be conducted.
According to the 2006 survey 64.5% of the adult population were non gamblers, 31% didn’t gamble at all and 1.6% were at a moderate risk of becoming problem gamblers and 0.8% were problem gamblers.

The new survey will be conducted in 2011 and the results are due in the fourth quarter of 2011. Stay tuned