12 November 2024: This Gambling Harm Awareness Week 2024, the University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre has launched its Understanding gambling harms in the digital age report – detailing one of the first major research projects in the ACT to explore gambling harm from a public health communication perspective.
The report makes evidence-based and practical recommendations to inform the development and implementation of a communication strategy to prevent and reduce gambling harm within the ACT community.
The report found that communication around gambling harms is often perceived by the community as “lacking credibility and impact” – a public health approach could improve effectiveness and reduce stigma around this prevalent issue.
The report’s guidance has informed the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission’s communication campaign for Gambling Harm Awareness Week 2024 (11-17 November), which includes two key messages: ‘Gambling can harm anyone’ and ‘Gambling is designed to hook people in’.
This project, conducted by Senior Research Fellow Dr Kate Holland, Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Kieran McGuinness, and News and Media Research Centre Director Professor Kerry McCallum, sought to identify ACT community attitudes and beliefs about gambling harm, levels of understanding of different types of harm, and views on how best to approach harm mitigation and prevention practices.
“Community members are concerned about gambling advertising and supportive of further restrictions,” commented lead author Dr Holland. “Our research offers insights into the much less discussed topic of how to communicate about gambling harms.”
As part of the project, the researchers carried out a survey and interviews with focus groups consisting of ACT community members, as well as professionals and experts in the gambling field, and developed and tested communication materials.
Despite increasing emphasis being given to a public health approach to gambling harms, the report notes that translation into harm prevention policy and communication is an ongoing challenge.
The research revealed that in the ACT, gambling is widely viewed as a popular and socially acceptable activity – one that is normalised through advertising, workplaces and social networks as a fun and social activity. The authors argue this may make it difficult to recognise and talk about gambling harm, while also leading people to distance themselves from such messages because of perceived stigma.
While attitudes towards gambling were mixed – 67 per cent of survey respondents said that, on balance, gambling was harmful to Australian society – the research participants identified a spectrum of gambling harms within the community. Beyond financial losses, harms to relationships and health and wellbeing were identified, which can be experienced by the person gambling and their significant others.
When asked about gambling harm campaigns, participants struggled to recall any campaigns or messaging they had seen about gambling harm in the ACT beyond tagline communications such as ‘gamble responsibly’, which many described as tokenistic and lacking credibility and impact – particularly in their placement at the end of ads promoting gambling. “Community members are quite concerned about gambling advertising and supportive of further restrictions,” said Dr Holland.
Of the gambling harm communication strategies tested, the researchers found the following themes to have the most engagement, resonance and impact among focus group participants:
- ‘Gambling harm can affect anyone’
- ‘Gambling products, services and advertising are designed to keep people spending’
“This highlights the importance of messaging that challenges stigma and stereotypes about what gambling harm is and who experiences it, showing that it can affect people from any walk of life,” said Dr Holland. “Hearing people with lived experience of gambling harm share their stories was seen as vital for humanising the issue, enabling people to relate to it and showing that it can be overcome.”
The report recommended that gambling harm communications be delivered through the same media where people are exposed to gambling advertising: TV, social media platforms, mobile apps and online gambling sites.
“No single message or strategy is going to be effective for everyone,” said Dr Holland. “Messages intended for the whole community are going to confront a diverse and fragmented audience in terms of their involvement in gambling, attitudes and the types of media they use.”
The researchers recommend that gambling harm campaigns feature a wide range of gamblers and modes of gambling to overcome stereotypes about problem gambling and people who experience gambling harm.
“It could also help people to recognise that it could happen to them, or someone they know, and reduce the likelihood of people distancing themselves from the issue,” said Dr Holland.
The report also addressed the need to destigmatise gambling harm prevention initiatives and seeking help.
“Showing that gambling harms can happen to people from any background, no matter their circumstances, may contribute to an environment in which people can feel safe to talk about harms and to seek and receive help without negative judgement and with the knowledge that they are not alone,” said Dr Holland.
The project was funded by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission’s Gambling Harm Prevention and Mitigation Fund.
Access the report here: https://doi.org/10.60836/1cr3-ra13