Gambling harm a public health risk: Salvation Army Policy and Advocacy
- kirranicolle
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
The Salvation Army is working steadily to advocate for systemic changes to address the widespread harm caused by gambling in Australia.
With 2024 research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies showing that 68 per cent of high-risk gamblers had experienced cognitive, behavioural and mental health conditions and 66 per cent had experienced financial hardship, The Salvation Army’s Policy and Advocacy team is working to address the issue of gambling harm as a matter of public health.
“Frontline workers are seeing an increase in children and young people being impacted by gambling harm,” Emily Seiler, Adviser with The Salvation Army’s Policy and Advocacy team said.
The Salvation Army’s Policy and Advocacy team has recently been involved in multiple high-level discussions regarding the topic and has provided submissions on gambling harm to governments across the country, including the Federal government.
These have included a meeting with Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibersek, a submission last year to the Tasmanian Treasury and Finance Department in response to the public consultation paper on Player Card and Cashless Gaming and a call for gambling advertising reform in the Australian Capital Territory. Members of the team also recently met with ACT Minister for Gaming Reform Dr Marisa Paterson MLA.
The team is currently preparing a submission to the Review and Reform of Western Australian Gambling Laws, which is currently in progress, following consultations with frontline services in the state to understand how gambling harm is impacting those The Salvation Army assists across corps, Youth, Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) and Alcohol and Other Drugs services.
Emily said that in their submission, the team will call for the WA Government to centre gambling harm reduction in the review and reform of current laws.
“There’s a lot of research out there around what works, and there is the context from other countries,” Emily said. “What we do is highlight the experiences that The Salvation Army is seeing on the ground to back recommendations and existing research. There is so much research. We know the harm that gambling causes.
“Highlighting how gambling harm is impacting children is one of our key priorities.”
According to 2023 Parliamentary research, two-thirds to three-quarters of children will have participated in some form of gambling in their pre-teen and teenage years.
The report also highlighted that children were being exposed to advertising through multiple avenues in the context of sport, including in-stadia advertisements, sponsorship logos and social media. The report noted that according to the Australian Medical Association, the close links and associations created between gambling and sport do not align with public health principles.
Emily said the team were looking to foster an approach to gambling which centred on gambling as a matter of public health and moved away from the traditional view that someone was a ‘problem gambler’, and rather as someone experiencing harm within a system which enabled gambling corporations to thrive at the cost of consumer wellbeing. She said the Western Australian Government was looking to update gambling legislation and was interested in receiving contributions.
“There is an interest from government in this space, but interest doesn’t always equate to outcomes, and that’s where we are making sure that the voices of people with lived experience who have been impacted by gambling harm are heard in these discussions,” Emily said.
For more information on The Salvation Army’s Gambling Support Service, click here: Phone: 03 9653 3250. The service offers financial and therapeutic counselling, community engagement and venue support.
