New national gambling data has revealed that while levels have remained steady following a post-pandemic spike seen in 2023, there has been a long-term shift in gambling behaviour, with more people taking up online gambling.

The ANU study used data collected between April 2019 and January 2024.
Participants were asked about their gambling activity over the past 12 months, as well as their general wellbeing.

Lead author Dr Aino Suomi said:
“While the number of Australians who gamble is similar to 12 months ago – 60.3 per cent compared to 61.3 per cent – the number of individuals gambling at risky levels increased from 11.6 per cent to 13.6 per cent.

“This means a larger proportion of individuals who gamble are experiencing harm.

“Our data also suggests a move away from venue-based gambling to activities that are readily available online, such as sports betting.”

The most popular gambling activity in 2024 was buying lottery tickets – 46.8 per cent of Australia’s adult population – followed by buying raffle or scratch tickets, gambling on poker machines and race betting.

Australian men, older age groups and those with lower levels of education had higher rates of gambling participation than younger age groups.

“We saw a substantial decline in gambling participation rates in the midst of the pandemic, from 65.6 per cent in 2019 to 53.5 per cent in 2021, in part likely due to a lack of access to gambling venues,” Dr Suomi said.

“While these rates now seem to have stabilised again, online gambling has exponentially increased, and should now be considered one of the main gambling platforms.

“The unlimited access to online gambling has the potential to cause real harm if not properly addressed.”

In a separate report, using the same survey data, the ANU team also looked at how many Australians are negatively affected by someone else’s gambling.

Roughly 1.2 million adults, 5.3 per cent of the total adult population, reported being personally affected by someone else’s gambling in the past 12 months.

“Individuals who were affected by someone else’s gambling tended to be younger (aged 18 to 24), earning a lower income, experiencing problems related to their own gambling, and dealing with loneliness or psychological distress,” Dr Suomi said.

“If we have more data on this group of ‘affected others’, we can help understand how to best support them.”

Both papers have been published online as part of the ANUPoll series of reports.