Thanks Sally!

I’m currently working on programming a robotic arm to sort my kids’ Lego.

Ok, my Lego that I sometimes let my kids play with.

Lots more in there! Please enjoy some light holiday reading.

Thanks to coauthors Georgia Dellosa, Prof Matthew Rockloff and Prof Nerilee Hing from CQU.

Thanks to @ipsosgroup.bsky.social Australia for the great fieldwork and to the team at NSW Office of Responsible Gambling. /end

New this time: We captured harm from a person's own gambling (GHS-10), harm from another person's gambling (GHS-10-AO) and also legacy harm, harm from gambling that stopped more than 12 months ago.

One in five adults in NSW reported some degree of harm from gambling.

Overall prevalence and problems are largely stable since 2019. Some forms became more popular: sports betting, lotteries. Others declined: EGMs, race betting, keno, casino table games, scratchies, some minor forms. 10.7% reported some degree of problems based on PGSI.

Also, WA has certain restrictions on their pokies. We found that, amongst people who play at the same frequency in WA vs elsewhere, the harm is the same. There’s no evidence these structural changes help. It’s the accessibility that makes a huge difference.

Please ask any questions!

One of the arguments about not restricting or regulating pokies is that people will just gamble online instead. And yet, despite there being a higher prevalence of gambling in WA, and lower prevalence of pokies use, there’s no difference in online gambling. So no substitution effect.

Turns out we can tell. Western Australia doesn’t have them in pubs and clubs. Only in one casino. Gambling harm is about one-third lower in WA, and our analyses show that this is attributable to lower prevalence of gambling on pokies.

akjournals.com/view/journal...