Community attitudes survey 2019: Harm from gambling

As part of our community attitudes survey, we asked Victorians about their experience of harm from gambling.

Have you been harmed by someone else’s gambling?

One in 10 people (9.7 per cent) said they had experienced harm in the previous year because of someone else’s gambling. This included:

feelings of sadness, anxiety, stress or anger
relationship difficulties
negative impact on their social life
reduced ability to work or study
financial hardship.

People aged 18–34 were more than twice as likely as those in other age groups to report experiencing harm from someone else’s gambling.

1 in 10

Victorians were harmed by someone else’s gambling in the previous year.

18–34 years

Young adults were twice as likely as other age groups to be harmed by someone else’s gambling in the previous year.

Have you experienced harm because of your own gambling?

We asked people about negative effects from their own gambling. The five most common types of harm were:

reduced spending money
reduced savings
feeling regret/sorry about their gambling
feeling ashamed about their gambling
spending less time with people they cared about.

Men (7 per cent) were more likely than women (4.3 per cent) to report harm.

Around twice as many people aged 18–34 (9.2 per cent) had experienced harm from their own gambling than those aged 35–54 (5.3 per cent) and those aged 55+ (4.2 per cent).

1 in 18

People were harmed by their own gambling in the previous year.

x 2

People aged 18–34 were twice as likely as other age groups to report harm from their own gambling in the previous year.

‘All people who gamble are at risk of harm’

Around half the people surveyed (55 per cent) agreed that everyone who gambles is at risk of harm.

There were no noticeable differences in agreement with this statement across age and gender.

Confidence in avoiding gambling harm

When asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement, ‘I am confident that I would never get addicted to gambling’, around two-thirds (64.5 per cent) of people agreed.

People aged 55+ were more likely to be confident about avoiding gambling harm than those in younger age groups.

Find out more about gambling harm in Victoria.