New data has revealed around three million Australians are engaged in some form of harmful gambling. A study by the Australian Gambling Research Centre says the harms include financial stress, family violence and poor mental health and found young adults are nearly twice as likely to be at high-risk of harm, compared to other age groups.
00:00A recent study has found that Australia has the highest rate of gambling losses per capita in the world.
00:09$32 billion is lost to legal gambling every year in this country.
00:15Here in Queensland we have the highest rate of gambling, with more than 70% of adults in the state punting at least once a year.
00:24But the gambling rates are high right across the board.
00:27In South Australia and Western Australia more than two thirds of adults also gamble at least once a year.
00:32Here in Australia the lottery is the most common type of gambling, followed by scratches, poker machines and then of course sports betting which is incredibly popular.
00:41Now gambling comes with plenty of harms, that is what this study has found.
00:46It's found that those that gamble more frequently are at a higher risk of gambling related harm.
00:52Now this ranges anywhere from stress and anxiety related to financial losses all the way through to suicidal thoughts and an increase in intimate partner violence.
01:02But as we know it's not just the punters themselves that experience the consequences of regular gambling.
01:08This study found that 20% of people who are in a relationship with somebody who gambles more than once a week have experienced intimate partner violence.
01:18And it's for a whole slew of reasons that the researchers behind this study are calling for more investigation into the harms of gambling and better efforts to help mitigate them.
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