The emergence of problem gambling as a corporate social issue in australia¹

This paper is based on PhD research by Nerilee Hing conducted through the University of Western Sydney and supervised by Jan McMillen.

Abstract

Commercial gambling has recently expanded exponentially in Australia such that annual gambling losses now total over $12 billion dollars, representing $886 per adult and 3.4 percent of household disposable income (Tasmanian Gaming Commission 2000). In tandem with this expansion, problem gambling has emerged as a significant social issue. This paper documents how the epistemic community, governments, gambling operators and pressure groups have advanced this issue by tracking their changing stances and the widening expectational gaps between them. It develops an integrated lifecycle model of problem gambling to demonstrate how these four stakeholders have propelled the issue along its lifecycle to the point where resolving it requires substantial alterations in how gambling is operated, marketed, and managed.

Notes

This paper is based on PhD research by Nerilee Hing conducted through the University of Western Sydney and supervised by Jan McMillen.