An online general community panel survey was conducted in July 2022. A sample of 1,765 Australian residents aged 18 years and over, aligned with ABS population parameters of age, gender and location of residence (metro and non-metro), completed the survey. Researchers explored participants’ views on sports and race betting advertising by asking how much they agreed with a range of statements on a scale from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’, and whether they ‘supported’ or ‘opposed’ a range of potential policy responses.

Key messages:

• Survey findings show that around three-quarters (73%) of Australian adults gambled at least once in the past 12 months and almost two in five (38%) gambled at least weekly.
• Among those who gambled, almost half (46%) were classified as being at some risk of gambling harm.
• The most common products people spent money on were lotteries/scratchies (64%), horse racing (38%), sports betting (34%) and pokies (33%); most participants (70%) gambled on multiple products (two or more).
• Most Australians expressed concern about the availability of gambling and its impacts on the community, believing that there are ‘too many opportunities for gambling nowadays’ (77%) and that gambling is ‘dangerous for family life’ (68%) and ‘should be discouraged’ (59%).