Australia's Gambling Industries - Productivity Commission

While most of the money involved with bad debts is a transfer within society rather
than a net cost, there are nonetheless some real costs. Bad debts involve effort and
resources to recover debts, and this cost would typically be included in the general
cost of loans to other borrowers. The Commission has no basis for estimating the
extent of this cost.
Productivity loss
Problem gambling has a significant affect on all aspects of the problem gambler’s
life. This spills over into the work environment — time may be increasingly taken
from work to gamble, and the depression that accompanies problem gambling can
erode work performance. When Dickerson et al estimated the cost of problem
gambling in NSW, the loss in work productivity was the largest single component of
cost.
The Commission’s National Gambling Survey indicated that some 94 300 people
would have been less productive at work as a result of their gambling in the last 12
months. Some of this loss may be trivial. The survey indicated that lost productivity
happened ‘sometime to always’ for 49 200 ‘often to always’ for 7000 people.
In their responses to the Survey of Clients of Counselling Agencies, the gamblers
indicated an average productivity loss of 7.9 per cent. This estimate is higher than
those used elsewhere. For example, Dickerson et al (1998) assumed a productivity
loss of 1 hour a week, a loss equivalent to 2.5 per cent of work time, while
Ladouceur (1994) assumed a loss of 5 hours a month, a similar level of loss to that
used by Dickerson et al. But these earlier estimates of the loss in productivity seem
low. One hour a week of work time does not align with the comments that problem
gamblers make about the extent of their obsession with gambling. In making its
estimates of the loss in productivity, the Commission has used the average level
reported by problem gamblers in its survey.
How has the cost of lost productivity been calculated?
The key data used to estimate the cost of lost productivity due to problem gambling
are:
• for a lower estimate, the number of people from the national survey reporting an
adverse effect on job performance ‘often to always’ in the last 12 months —
7000 adults nationwide.
MEASURING COSTS J.13