Comprehensive study of the Aussie gambler published
News on 3 Apr 2014
News on 3 Apr 2014
An extensive study of the Australian gambling scene commissioned from local academics in 2011 by Gambling Research Australia, has been concluded and published under the no-nonsense title of ‘Interactive Gambling.’
Funded by the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments, the research was carried out by an impressive list of high profile Aussie academics, including:
Professor Nerilee Hing
Centre for Gambling Education and Research, Southern Cross University
Dr Sally Gainsbury
Centre for Gambling Education and Research, Southern Cross University
Professor Alex Blaszczynski
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney
Professor Robert Wood
Department of Sociology, University of Lethbridge
Professor Dan Lubman
Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, Eastern Health
Alex Russell
Centre for Gambling Education and Research, Southern Cross University
The researchers claim the work is the most comprehensive yet, involving a telephone survey of 15,000 Australian adult residents in late 2011, followed by an online study in 2012 involving almost 4,600 respondents.
Highlights amongst the study conclusions are:
* Current annual overall gambling paraticipation rate by adults is 64 percent, with just 8 percent claiming to have engaged in at least one type of online gambling over the past year.
* Prevalence of problem gambling slightly higher than the international average at 0,6 percent, although researchers could find no firm evidence that the higher problem gambling rate was associated with online gambling.
* Average Aussie online gambler is male and, with a mean age of 39, is six years younger than his counterpart in bricks and mortar casinos (well over sixty percent in both telephone and online studies).
* Less likely to be married, and better educated, with many holding tertiary educational qualifications.
* Fully employed and earning between A$90,000 and A$120,000 p.a.
* Between 2.5 percent to 7 percent see themselves as either professional or semi-professional players.
* Online punters enjoy a wider spread of gambling genres that includes race and sports betting and poker, and 81 percent of online gamblers also play at bricks and mortar establishments.
* Online gamblers have more open minds on advertising, with 52 percent feeling that internet gambling operators should be allowed to advertise across traditional and internet media. 25 percent felt online gambling advertising on television was acceptable during sports broadcasts, and 41 percent were comfortable with the advertisement of online operators at live sporting events. By comparison, 66 percent of land-based gamblers are against such advertising, whilst only 26 percent of online punters felt that advertising should not be permitted.
*Online gamblers have a more accurate grasp of laws pertaining to gambling.
* Online punters bet mostly on sportys and racing events, with lotteries and poker following. A significant 80 percent of respondents said they used the internet to bet exclusively on sports and racing. 57 percent of casino table game players, 43 percent of lottery ticket buyers and 26% of poker fans played exclusively online.
* 10 percent of respondents said they used mobile devices for betting over the internet – just 4 percent on tablets. The rest used either laptops or PCs.
* 63 percent of respondents said they chose the internet channel because it was so convenient, private and had a competitive edge over land offers.
* Most online gamblers said they were influenced in their choice of playing venue by a range of factors that included competitive offers; operational reputation on the internet; diversity of action on offer; and how quickly the operator paid withdrawals.
* Aussie online gamblers in general preferred domestic sites, although 33 percent of respondents said they would play on international sites if the offer was sufficiently attractive. That appears to contradict Australian government claims that 60 percent of all online gambing activity is taking place on offshore sites.
* Over half of respondents said they had online accounts with just one preferred site, whilst 21 percent said they had accounts on two sites, and the remainder played a variety of sites.
* Credit cards are the preferred mthod of funding online gambling accounts (36 percent), followed by debit cards (26 percent), other types of e-wallet systems (19 percent) and direct debit bank transfer (14 percent).
The full survey can be read here:
