No abstract

Player loss-risk curves for total gambling losses and for different gambling activities are likely to be linear or r-shaped. For total losses and electronic gaming machines, there is no evidence of a threshold below which increasing losses does not increase the risk of harm.

To date, a method for the cost-effective prediction of venue catchments, and hence the spatial distribution of EGM harm, has not been available at the local level. As a first step in developing such a method, we explore the utility of a gravity modeling approach to predict the spatial distribution of venue catchments in a metropolitan region of the Northern Territory, Australia. Key inputs for the model presented include existing venue and recently released ABS Mesh Block data. We subsequently perform a combinatory analysis that integrates the predicted venue catchments with an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) measure of social disadvantage to generate a gambling vulnerability surface. The advantages of this approach are that it allows visualization of catchments for effective communication, is based upon existing and current data that is available publicly through the ABS making it cost-effective, and provides a fine-grained local-level assessment of gambling vulnerability for applied policy purposes.

This paper examines the debate about possible relationships between problem gambling and accessibility to electronic gaming machines (EGMs), in the context of the Victorian Government's policy that imposed a 'cap' on EGMs in disadvantaged communities. Using GIS (Geographical Information Systems), the spatial distribution of social disadvantage in three 'capped' localities was compared with the spatial distribution of gaming venues and patterns of concentrated EGM expenditure during 2001-2005, including seasonal trends. Research revealed different relationships between spatial and social categories in the study localities, indicating the need for more systematic local area analysis. This research raises questions about the limitations of conventional methodologies and regulatory strategies based on simple measures such as gaming machine density. We propose improvements to the methodology to better measure the changing level of local supply and demand for machine gaming.

The liberalisation of gambling in Australia has resulted in the dispersal of 200 000 electronic gaming machines (EGMs) across the country, generating substantial revenues for State governments and the gambling industry as well as causing significant gambling-related harm. While the spatial distribution of EGM venues has been shown to follow a gradient of community disadvantage, little is known about the distinctions between the venues themselves (i.e. pubs, clubs, and casinos), either in terms of the catchments they service or the harm they produce. To this end, we constructed a sexpartite typology of EGM venues in the Northern Territory of Australia derived from venue location and licensing variables. We also conducted a geocoded mail survey (n 07041) of households in three urban centres to describe the composition of markets and problem-gambling outcomes across the six venue categories in the typology. Venues in accessible locations and those with a higher numbers of EGMs, particularly casinos and clubs located near supermarkets, were most closely associated with gambling-related harm, even when differing player sociodemographics were accounted for. We argue that gambling risk is a function of the interaction of geographic accessibility to markets on the one hand and venue effects on the other. An understanding of the geography of EGM gambling may help improve supply-side approaches to regulation, as well as shed insights into contemporary urban processes within Australia's regional settlements.