Changing the way we talk about gambling harm

After almost 12 challenging and fulfilling years, the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation will be closing on 30 June 2024.

In that time, our research agenda has established a body of knowledge and understanding of gambling harm and how it affects individuals, families and communities. This growing evidence base has supported all aspects of the Foundation’s work, including prevention programs, treatment and support services, public awareness marketing campaigns and policy advice to government. It has also been the basis upon which we adopted a public health approach to gambling harm.

… our research agenda has established a body of knowledge and understanding of gambling harm …

We acknowledge the invaluable expertise, experience and understanding our partners and stakeholders have brought to preventing and reducing gambling harm. We thank them for their contributions and collaboration.

I would like to particularly acknowledge and thank the Foundation board and Lived Experience Advisory Committee. They and our committed staff, some 60-strong, have taken the organisation through many complexities, and broadened the way in which gambling harm can be perceived and addressed.

… we adopted a public health approach to gambling harm.

We look at the current Victorian gambling harm reform environment and know that the work of the Foundation has been critical to creating that environment.

With the support of the leadership team and the Foundation board, we are now entering the final phase of the transition of our important functions and wonderful people to the Department of Health, the Department of Justice and Community Safety, and the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission.

Over the Foundation’s journey, we have achieved so much for Victorians experiencing or at risk of harm from gambling through our:

• internationally renowned research program and evaluation and knowledge services
• early intervention, prevention, treatment and support programs
• public health and awareness raising campaigns
• advocacy in the public domain and provision of advice to government
• Love the Game and Be Ahead of the Game programs
• robust and highly professional enabling services
• engagement and collaboration with the voices of lived experience
• professional development work with our sector and the mobilisation of our evidence base
• creation of an informative, effective Outcomes Framework, and
• submissions to the 2021 Royal Commission into Crown Casino.

I believe the Foundation has been instrumental in changing the conversation about gambling harm in Victoria and around the nation. It is now widely accepted that gambling harm is a public health issue and that this should be reflected in the language we use to describe it. This change of conversation is demonstrated by the recent release of our Gambling harm language guide.

… the Foundation has been instrumental in changing the conversation about gambling harm in Victoria …

And this important work continues.

The Foundation’s functions and related activities will be delivered under a new operational model as of 1 July 2024. That work will continue to build the gambling harm knowledge base, and contribute to strategies that minimise gambling-related harm at an individual, community and population level.