Around eight in ten Victorians believe responsible gambling means understanding the risks of gambling, exercising control over gambling, being aware of the likelihood of losing, and ensuring your gambling does not cause problems for yourself or others.

More than two-thirds agree responsible gambling means keeping gambling in balance with other activities. More than half agree it means only gambling for pleasure and entertainment.

Around one in eight thinks responsible gambling means only gambling when you feel lucky or only gambling using tips from experts. Around one in 13 thinks it means only gambling using poker machines with the highest payout.

According to participants of our 2019 survey, responsible gambling means:

1. exercising control over your gambling (79.9 per cent)
   
2. understanding the risks associated with gambling (82.2 per cent)
   
3. being aware of the likelihood of losing at gambling (80.2 per cent)
   
4. ensuring your gambling is not causing problems for yourself or others (78.2 per cent)
   
5. keeping gambling in balance with other activities in your life (67.9 per cent)
   
6. only gambling for pleasure and entertainment (51.6 per cent)
   
7. only gambling using tips from the experts (10.7 per cent)
   
8. only gambling when you feel lucky (11.5 per cent)
   
9. only gambling using poker machines with the highest payout (7.9 per cent).

People aged 18–34 and 35–54 are more than twice as likely as those aged 55+ to agree that ‘only using poker machines with the highest payout’ and ‘only gambling using tips from the experts’ demonstrates responsible gambling.

Men and women had similar levels of agreement on all statements.

Almost half (46.4 per cent) of Victorians believe you can gamble as often as you like as long as you don’t go over your time and money limits. Young Victorians aged 18–34 are less likely to agree with this (39 per cent).

Women (42.7 per cent) are more likely than men (28.6 per cent) to believe responsible gambling means gambling less than once a month.

More than half the Victorian community (59 per cent) believe spending one per cent or less of annual income on gambling to be responsible. A further 31.1 per cent believe spending between two and five per cent of annual income on gambling to be responsible.

Around two-thirds (66.1 per cent) of people aged 35–54 believe responsible gambling means spending one per cent or less of annual income on gambling, while less than half (47.2 per cent) of those aged 18–34 believe this to be the case.

There is little difference between women (60.4 per cent) and men (57.5 per cent) in considering spending one per cent or less of annual income on gambling to be responsible gambling, although women (30.7 per cent) are more likely than men (24.5 per cent) to endorse zero spending.

Men and people aged 18–34 are less likely to believe responsible gambling means spending $10 or less a week on gambling.

Men (8.3 per cent) are around three times more likely than women (2.8 per cent) to consider spending more than $50 a week to be responsible gambling.

The Foundation’s gambling calculator enables people to calculate how much time and money they spend on gambling per year, and how this compares to other Australians.

The 2016 Foundation-funded study Behavioural indicators of responsible gambling consumption identified 61 responsible consumption of gambling behaviours.

Another Foundation-funded study investigated the kinds of limits (frequency, expenditure) that may help reduce the risk of harm from gambling. Read the findings in the 2018 report on the development of empirically derived Australian responsible gambling limits.

Read more about how the community attitudes survey was conducted.