Australia's Gambling Industries - Productivity Commission

• the three-quarters who committed gambling related crimes are problem gamblers
in the sense that gambling appears to be a sufficiently important source of
financial difficulties for them to turn to crime; but
• the remaining one-quarter who committed crimes that were unrelated to their
gambling may well be ‘criminals who also happen to be gamblers’.
Findings from general population gambling surveys
Information on the extent of gambling related illegal activity among problem
gamblers has been obtained in several Australian general population gambling
surveys — a 1991 four capital city survey (Dickerson et al. 1996), statewide surveys
for NSW (Dickerson et al. 1996a, 1998), and the Commission’s National Gambling
Survey undertaken for the inquiry.
Australian multi-city or statewide gambling surveys
In 1991, a doorknock survey of gambling behaviour among 2744 participants in
Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane was undertaken (Dickerson et al. 1996).
The 22 respondents who scored 10 or more on the SOGS (and on that basis were
identified as problem gamblers) reported the following illegal activity:
• 32 per cent had experienced problems with the police because of their gambling;
• 18 per cent had appeared in court on charges related to gambling; and
• 27 per cent had been in prison because of gambling related crime.
Two large-scale gambling studies carried out for New South Wales (Dickerson et al.
1996a, 1998) also examine the prevalence of gambling-related illegal activity.
Across the two surveys, the 14 respondents who scored 10 or more on the SOGS
reported the following illegal activity:
• 43 per cent had experienced problems with the police because of their gambling;
• 71 per cent had appeared in court on charges related to gambling; and
• 29 per cent had been in prison because of crime related to gambling.
National Gambling Survey
The Commission’s National Gambling Survey sought information on the prevalence
of gambling-related illegal activity. The questions posed in the survey in relation to
crime were:
PROBLEM GAMBLING
AND CRIME
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