Aboriginal card gamblers and non-card gamblers: do they differ?

Abstract

Many Indigenous populations engage in traditional gambling games, but little is known about their contemporary usage or the characteristics of people who participate. This paper presents the first quantitative study of traditional Indigenous Australian card gambling. The aim of this research was to compare Indigenous Australian card gamblers with non-card gamblers in terms of socio-demographic characteristics, gambling behaviour and motivations, gambling cognitions, gambling consequences, substance use while gambling and problem gambling severity. A gambling survey was conducted at Indigenous festivals, in several communities and online. Within a sample of 1001 gamblers, 414 people had gambled on traditional card games in the previous 12 months. Many card gamblers commenced gambling while young, were highly involved in both cards and commercial gambling and gambled because most of their family and friends also gamble. An important difference revealed here is that card gamblers gamble on more forms of commercial gambling than non-card gamblers. Gambling appears as a deep-seated habit in some participants' lives and although the proportion classified as problem gamblers is high in this sample the card gamblers held more realistic cognitions about chances of winning than did the non-card gamblers.

Keywords:

• gambling
• cards
• commercial
• Indigenous Australian
• Aboriginal

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the contribution of many Indigenous Australians in this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number DP1096595].

Notes on contributors

Nerilee Hing

Nerilee Hing, PhD, is a professor at the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Southern Cross University, and Director of the Centre for Gambling Education and Research, Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia.

Helen Breen

Helen M. Breen, PhD, is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Southern Cross University, and researcher at the Centre for Gambling Education and Research, Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia.

Ashley Gordon

Ashley J. Gordon, BEd, is an Indigenous researcher, a gambling counsellor and gambling community educator with lengthy experience in Indigenous community engagement. Ashley is also a researcher at the Centre for Gambling Education and Research, Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia

Alex Russell

Alex Russell, BSc, GDS, is an Associate Lecturer at the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Southern Cross University, and researcher at the Centre for Gambling Education and Research, Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia.