Gambling Research Australia, a problem gambling initiative involving federal and state governments, has just issued a report on Australians’ online gambling habits.
The study found the adult gambling participation rate for the previous 12 months at 64 percent, with 8 percent having participated in at least one form of online gambling. The prevalence of problem gambling was 0.6 percent. The study concluded that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that online gambling is connected with problem gambling.
The study involved a telephone survey of 15,000 adults in late 2011 and an online survey in 2012 involving nearly 4,600 participants.
Researchers determined that online gamblers were far more likely to be males with 62 percent male in the telephone survey and 77 percent male in the online survey.
Sports and race betting were the most popular forms of online gambling, followed by lotteries and poker. Online gamblers reported placing over 80 percent of sports and racing wagers exclusively online while 57 percent of casino table game players, 43 percent of lottery players and 26 percent of poker players played exclusively online.
Convenience was cited by 63 percent of participants as their main reason for choosing online gambling.
