Australia's Gambling Industries - Productivity Commission

Almost all divorce cases are uncontested and involve a simple procedure of filing and
serving documents on the other party. There is a government filing fee of $500.00.
Standard legal fees charged are $385.00 if there are no children under 18 years and
$514.00 if there are children. In addition are any necessary disbursements such as a
process server’s fee (about $90.00) and the filing fee.
On this basis, the Commission has used a cost of divorce or separation of $1100.
With 2560 incidents in the last 12 months, this results in an estimated total annual
financial cost of $2.8 million nationally for divorce and separation as a result of
gambling.
In offering this estimate, it is recognised that it is very conservative and that the
financial cost of divorce and separation can extend well beyond the cost of the legal
procedures involved. Professor Quiggin (sub. D269) commented:
In the case of divorce, the only financial costs measured here are the legal costs of
obtaining a divorce. It is clear, however, that substantially greater financial costs arise
from financial settlements associated with divorce, e.g. costs of enforcing child support
orders, transactions costs of house sales and ownership transfers and so on. The set up
and operation costs of separate households are substantial. More significantly, there is
ample evidence suggesting long-term adverse impacts on children’s educational
outcomes arising from divorce, and this translates into lower earnings. Human capital
models therefore imply a financial loss which in present value terms would surely
exceed the $30 000 upper bound used here [in the draft report for the emotional costs of
divorce and separation], without even allowing for emotional costs.
Emotional costs of relationship breakdowns and divorce and separation
The emotional cost of relationship breakdowns and particularly divorce and
separation is, in many ways much more significant than the financial costs involved.
And because other family members are involved, the number of people affected is
greater.
Relationship breakdown
The National Gambling Survey indicated that some 32 900 relationship breakdowns
could be attributed to gambling in the last 12 months. In making the broad estimate
of the impact on the immediate family earlier in this appendix, the Commission
excluded the number of people estimated to have suffered a relationship breakdown.
The cost of this breakdown is included in this section, with the exception of those
that led to divorce and separation, which are dealt with in the next section.
The following data have been used to estimate the emotional cost of relationship
breakdowns:
J.30 GAMBLING