The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of harm experienced by people who gambled in Australia. It examined how gambling harm was distributed across levels of problem gambling and forms of gambling. The researchers identified risk factors for gambling harm and assessed the impacts on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Data were from a representative sample of Australian adults. About 14.7% of those who gambled in the past year experienced at least one harm. This represented about 8.4% of the Australian adult population. People with problem gambling were most likely to report three or more harms (92%). However, there were more people with low- and moderate-risk gambling. Therefore, they accounted for most of the low- and moderate-level harms. At the population level, the greatest aggregate impacts on HRQoL were accounted for by people with lower risk.
Electronic gaming machines were the most harmful gambling form. The proximal risk factors included online gambling and more frequent gambling on EGMs and some other types (e.g., sports and race betting). The distal (demographic risk factors included being younger, male, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and speaking a language other than English at home.
