‘Pushing buttons‘: an evaluation of the effect of Aboriginal income management on commercial gambling expenditure

Abstract

The Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 was a radical intervention into the lives of Aboriginal residents of the Northern Territory, Australia. One of the intervention's key measures was income management -a scheme designed to limit the range of goods and services that may be purchased with social security payments. The aim of income management was to curb 'anti-social behaviours' such as excessive gambling and alcohol consumption. In this paper, we specifically test the efficacy of income management in reducing the amount spent on commercial gambling. To achieve this we conduct an interrupted time series analysis with deflated monthly electronic gaming machine (EGM) expenditure data from July 2002 to July 2010 for hotels and clubs in the towns of Alice Springs and Katherine. We find a negative association between income management and EGM revenues for only one gambling venue in each town. However, local complexity in the form of segregated markets along temporal, spatial and racial lines, along with other policy confounders, may obscure the effects of the macro-policy intervention. We conclude by making suggestions for locally-based responses to problematic forms of risky consumption that may be more sensitive to local geographies.

The Effect of Quarantining Welfare on School Attendance in Indigenous Communities

“…There is, however, reason to believe that income management may not have resulted in a substantial shift in consumption. For instance, empirical evidence from localized studies is consistent with the view that income management had no impact on food purchases (Brimblecombe et al, 2010) and minor impacts on gambling behaviors (Lamb & Young, 2011).…”

Unintended Consequences of Welfare Reform: Evidence from Birth Outcomes of Aboriginal Australians

“…Conversely, Lamb and Young (2011) find suggestive evidence of a decrease in gambling expenditure. But both studies relate to specific locations, so their findings may not be representative of the effect of the policy across the whole of the NT.…”

Gambling with Stimulus Payments: Feeding Gaming Machines with Federal Dollars

“…For example, an income management scheme designed to limit the range of goods and services that can be purchased with social security payments has been introduced in Australia's Northern Territory. Lamb and Young (2011) report that this scheme appears to have reduced the cash spent on EGMs. This would imply that future stimulus packages could be designed to minimise direct expenditure on EGMs.…”