Gambling bug spreads to women

YOUNG women are emerging as Australia’s new problem gamblers.

Contrary to public perception that middle-aged and older women spend the most amount of time playing pokies and mainly men gamble on racing, sports and at casinos, new research shows women aged 16-34 are also betting big time.

A Deakin University study reveals almost two-thirds of young women (64 per cent) have bet on horse racing or other sports, gambled at a casino or played the pokies over the past 12 months, putting their gambling rates on par with men.

The study shows women aged 16-34 are 2.6 times more likely to be classified as problem gamblers than women aged 35-54 and 10.2 times more likely than women aged over 55.

It also reveals younger women experience the most harm from gambling because they do not have the savings or steady income buffers of older punters, and women are more likely to develop gambling addictions faster than men.

Gambling researcher Associate Professor Samantha Thomas said the study results were a wake-up call.

“We’ve become so absorbed in protecting young men that we’ve taken our eye off the fact that young women are experiencing significant harm,” she said.

“Gambling has become more normalised for young women than ever before.”

The study found young women were more likely to diversify their gambling habits — using multiple products to bet — than older women.

While pokies were the product gambled on most frequently by women overall, younger women were more likely to bet on sports via a phone app and gamble at casinos than older women, Prof Thomas said.

This may be especially true of women under 18, who cannot legally enter casinos or venues with poker machines.

“There’s a major perception issue here — young women see horse and sports betting as less harmful than chancebased gambling, which we believe may be due to their exposure to online promotions and advertisements that have had a normalising impact on their attitudes to these newer forms of gambling,” Prof Thomas said.

More than 500 women across Victoria and New South Wales were questioned online last year for the Deakin study.

Deakin researchers used the Problem Gambling Severity Index to measure whether women were problem gamblers.

The index asks questions across nine areas about behaviours known to characterise problem gambling, including whether they bet more than they can afford to lose and whether they feel guilty about their gambling habits.

Novelty betting around reality TV shows was increasingly popular and some gambling ads, including a CrownBet one with Nicky Whelan, appeared to be pitched directly at young women, Prof Thomas said.

Social media influencers had also started tagging sports betting companies in photos and hashtags, particularly during racing carnivals, she said.

Controversial Gibraltarbased bookmaker Lottoland is marketing heavily to families at the moment with a special “Mother’s Day bundle”.

Mother’s Day scratchie tickets are also being promoted.

“It shows the gambling industry is really starting to be a lot more overt with the strategies that it’s using to appeal to women,” Prof Thomas said.

She said the shocking results of her research showed a different approach was needed to properly address problem gambling among young people as most existing programs were based on male addicts. If you believe you may have a gambling addiction and need help, call Gambler’s Help on 1800 858 858, or if you are under 25, call the Youthline on 1800 262 376.

“We’ve become so absorbed in protecting young men that we’ve taken our eye off the fact that young women are experiencing significant harm.” ASSOCIAT E PROFESSOR SAMANTHA THOMAS