Australia's Gambling Industries - Productivity Commission

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The ACIL consultant was critical of this procedure: The mindset shown … where the authors argue that the 9 people who admitted to having committed an illegal activity and scored negative on the SOGS are likely to be false negatives is disturbing. Presumably the logic is that if you commit a crime then you must be a problem gambler (sub. D233, p. 98). But such a statement reflects a misunderstanding about the nature of the questions that were asked in the National Gambling Survey. As indicated above, all questions about criminal activity were specifically asked of respondents in relation to their gambling. If a person reported that their gambling had led them either to obtain money illegally, or to get into trouble with the police, or to appear in court on gambling related charges, then it would seem reasonable to conclude that in the absence of their gambling problems they would not have committed these acts. If they had committed a crime for a reason not related to their gambling, they would have answered no to these questions. Overall summary of findings on extent of crime by problem gamblers Marshall, Balfour and Kenner summarised the relationship between problem gambling and criminal behaviour as follows: Pathological [problem] gambling is a significant risk factor in offending. Depending on the population assessed and the methodology used, the percentage of pathological gamblers that offend to support their gambling ranges from 30 to 50 per cent (sub. 116, p. 2). The findings on the proportion of problem gamblers committing criminal offences estimated in the various studies summarised above, and brought together in table H.5, is largely consistent with this conclusion in relation to the lower bound but suggests that for some categories of problem gamblers it can be as high as 60 or 70 per cent. Because the estimates of the proportion of problem gamblers who engage in criminal activities relate to different populations, a difficulty arises in making inferences about the broader population of problem gamblers who either don’t seek help from counselling agencies, or don’t receive treatment in hospital-based programs, or who don’t end up in prison. For example, as Volberg et al. (1998) have commented, a limitation of relying on surveys of members of Gamblers Anonymous or of people seeking treatment to PROBLEM GAMBLING AND CRIME H.11
elicit information on vocational, financial or criminal impacts of their gambling is that: members of Gamblers Anonymous and individuals seeking treatment are not representative of problem gamblers in the general population. Hence, it is difficult to say how accurate these figures are for problem gamblers in the community (p. 351). Table H.5 Summary of proportion of problem gamblers committing offences Category of problem gambler Number of clients/subjects studied % committing gambling related offences Seeking help at problem gambling counselling agencies 30–1452 30–64 Hospital treated patients 152 53 Gamblers Anonymous members 154 66 Prison inmates identified with SOGS score of 5 or more 34 76 Identified in National Gambling Survey 140 11–27 Sources: Refer tables H.1, H.2 and H.4. Results from the National Gambling Survey can shed light on the representativeness of problem gamblers who seek help compared to the general population of problem gamblers. Of the problem gamblers (scoring 5 or more on the SOGS) who reported that they had tried to get help for their gambling problems in the last 12 months, around 38 per cent reported being involved in gambling-related criminal activity during their gambling careers. This compares with an involvement in gamblingrelated crime among 6 per cent of problem gamblers who had not tried to get help in the last 12 months. But treating as false negatives those who committed a criminal activity and who recorded less than 5 on the SOGS, then around 10 per cent of problem gamblers who had not sought help had committed a criminal offence at some stage of their gambling careers. Hence, while the help-seeking group contains a higher prevalence of illegal activity, there is still an appreciable rate of crime among the non-help seeking group. H.4 Is there a causal link between problem gambling and crime? The material presented in sections H.2 and H.3 can be reviewed to assess the relationship between problem gambling and crime from the viewpoint of two competing explanations: • that problem gambling leads people to commit crimes because of gamblingrelated financial difficulties; or alternatively H.12 GAMBLING
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Australia’s Gambling Industries I
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Contents of other volumes Volume 1
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Australian Capital Territory Federa
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Tasmania Wrest Point Casino New Zea
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Marianne James Prof Jan McMillen Pe
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Canberra, 30 November 1998 Senator
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Sydney, 16-17 September 1999 Rev Fr
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N Ward 28 Evelyn Jago 29 Territory
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Australian Hotels Association (SA)
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Women’s Health West 176 Norfolk I
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BetSafe Group - Paul Symond Consult
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B Participation in gambling: data t
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Table B.2 Participation in gambling
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Table B.4 Participation in gambling
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product in excess of the price paid
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C.2 Consumer surplus in the gamblin
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from increased consumption resultin
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Figure C.2 Tax and consumer surplus
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Table C.3 Price elasticities of dem
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Figure C.3 Consumer surplus for pro
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Box C.1 continued (e) That part of
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Table C.4 continued Wagering Lotter
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s n = share of gambling expenditure
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Figure C.6 Demand for gambling by p
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• the triangular area ’g’ whi
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The Commission’s treatment falls
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Box C.4 Explaining the lack of vari
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demand may become elastic, as peopl
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There are a number possible explana
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• Firstly, there has been extraor
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E Gambling in indigenous communitie
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The pattern of institutionally-base
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chase the “miracles” offered by
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F National Gambling Survey F.1 Intr
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F.2 The questionnaire Development o
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The use of this sampling approach m
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Box F.1 List of gambling activities
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• Big spending regular or less fr
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Questions asked of all respondents
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Comparisons of aggregate expenditur
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elated to their gambling — all
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Interview duration As with any ques
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ecause of non-payment), while there
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• post-weighting the sample data
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particular area/age/gender cell fro
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esult in turn reflects the survey p
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F.11 Contact and participation rate
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Being aware of the need to minimise
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NATIONAL GAMBLING SURVEY F.31
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Page 119 and 120: F.52 GAMBLING
Page 135 and 136: G Survey of Clients of Counselling
Page 137 and 138: G.3 Question by question A1 to A3
Page 139 and 140: D23 — is concerned with the mecha
Page 141 and 142: of problem gambling (eg how many ch
Page 143 and 144: CLIENT SURVEY G.9
Page 161 and 162: Problem gamblers may subsequently b
Page 163 and 164: For a subset of 856 clients in 1996
Page 165 and 166: Table H.3 Variable Logistic estimat
Page 167 and 168: Prison, South Australia’s main re
Page 169: • “Has your gambling ever led y
Page 173 and 174: This finding is consistent with the
Page 175 and 176: H.5 What crimes do problem gamblers
Page 177 and 178: Other more violent crimes such as b
Page 179 and 180: But as noted above, police statisti
Page 181 and 182: H.8 Problem gambling and loan shark
Page 183 and 184: epayments were required — but mos
Page 185 and 186: State Gaming Authorities data The s
Page 187 and 188: Table I.2 Unweighted estimation Med
Page 189 and 190: machines. There is no statistically
Page 191 and 192: Figure I.2 Expenditure on gaming ma
Page 193 and 194: Weighted results The Commission’s
Page 195 and 196: Table I.7 Summary of Victorian metr
Page 197 and 198: Table I.9 Summary of Queensland reg
Page 199 and 200: it is likely to represent the more
Page 201 and 202: Table J.1 presents the information
Page 203 and 204: suffer from some of the adverse con
Page 205 and 206: • costs of gambling counselling s
Page 207 and 208: To the extent that borrowed money i
Page 209 and 210: This fee is only taken in estates w
Page 211 and 212: • for a higher estimate, the numb
Page 213 and 214: The Commission has assumed that the
Page 215 and 216: • to estimate the income lost ove
Page 217 and 218: the Commission has used this estima
Page 219 and 220: • 336 people receiving a jail sen
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states offer up to $50 000 each for
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As indicated in table J.6, where pr
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seen as part of the informal contra
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Almost all divorce cases are uncont
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of their gambling during the period
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Suicide ideation The Commission’s
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Table J.10 continued People a Per p
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Table J.12 Value of annual transfer
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pathological and problem gamblers a
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Table K.2 Summary of cost estimates
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L Survey of Counselling Services Th
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Several academics working in the ar
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L.4 Survey results Nature of agenci
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Number of clients The survey includ
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Characteristics of gambling clients
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counselling because of someone else
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Table L.17 Full time equivalent pai
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Table L.20 Approaches used to help
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Table L.24 Gambling clients ending
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More specifically, agencies said fu
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Centacare (Whyalla) Centre for Anxi
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SURVEY OF COUNSELLING SERVICES L.23
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Table M.1 Major forms of gambling t
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and sport development fund. In some
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Tax on keno In New South Wales, the
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Poker machines In most states, lice
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Table M3: Gaming machine taxation b
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Table M3: (continued) Hotels: Levie
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Table M4: (continued) NSW VIC QLD W
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Table M5: (continued) OTHER GAMBLIN
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N.1 Characteristics of machines of
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Table N.1 Australia, Japan, United
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Table N.2 Australia, Indiana, Conne
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The following discussion of gaming
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Canada Broadly speaking, Canada has
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Figure N.4 Japanese pachislo machin
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Winnings Progressive jackpots are p
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Bets and losses Bets and losses on
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In Japan, the minimum amount requir
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N.2 Market segments As with many ot
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Box N.4 Comments on market segments
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O Displacement of illegal gambling?
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survive together because they cater
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P Spending by problem gamblers The
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Table P.1 Outlays, player losses an
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Table P.3 Concentration of outlays
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Figure P.2 Distribution of outlay b
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Table P.4 Expenditure shares of pro
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is adjusted for biases in its estim
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ACIL (sub. D233. p. 48) claimed tha
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P.5 Estimating the expenditure shar
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expenditures shares are shown in ta
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of counselling agencies is necessar
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Table Q.2 Employment status of prob
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Table Q.3 continued Study Average a
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Relationship status The greater inv
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Table Q.6 Gender of problem gambler
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The pattern of an increased feminis
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R Bankruptcy and gambling This appe
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Table R.2 Age profile of bankrupts,
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Table R.5 New bankruptcies per mill
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Figure R.2 continued Western Austra
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• The penalty has become less sev
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S State and territory gambling data
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Table S.4 Real government revenue f
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Table S.8 Real government revenue,
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Table S.12 Real government revenue
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Dickerson et al (1998, p. 79) for e
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However, the survey used a set of p
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T.3 The logistic approach The NORC
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Table T.3 Method Various estimates
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such as France and the US (Casino I
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Table U.2 An example of an outcome
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intensity on the 85.15 per cent Cas
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considers that the machine price
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egular playing (30 years) the proba
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for an amount of time that is less
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U.6 The gambler’s fallacy Gambler
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This does not mean that a person ca
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V Use of the SOGS in Australian gam
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Differences in question wording and
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References AADAC (Alberta Alcohol a
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—— 1998, Efficient Tobacco Taxa
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Bickerdyke, I. and Lattimore, R. 19
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——, Dickerson, M. and Harley, B
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Campbell, C. and Smith G. 1998, Can
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—— and Winefield, A.H. 1996, Co
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——, Baxter, P., Boreham, P., Ha
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Ferguson, B. 1996, A Note on the In
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—— 1997, Legalised Gambling as
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Horner, T. and Bradfield, G. 1998,
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——, Marston, A., Singer, R., Wi
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Gambling Studies, ‘Towards 2000:
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—— 1995b, Social impacts of urb
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—— and Ohtsuka, K. 1999, ‘The
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NT Select Committee (Select Committ
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Prosser, G., Breen, H., Weeks, P. a
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Single, E., Collins, D., Easton, B.
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Thomas, S., Jackson, A., Thomason,
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—— 1997, Gambling and Problem G
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Australia's Gambling Industries - Productivity Commission

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