Canberra researchers find sharp increase in risky gambling among Aussie parents

In January 2025, nearly one in five Australians had participated in risky gambling according to the latest of six reports from the ANU Centre for Gambling Research.

Fewer Australians are gambling overall but a higher proportion of those who do gamble are doing so online.

Risky gambling has jumped significantly in the last year and doubled since October 2021, lead researcher Associate Professor Aino Suomi said.

"Fewer people are gambling, but those who do, they do it more frequently and [at riskier] levels," she said.

More people are being harmed by other people's gambling.

Researchers establish risky gambling by asking respondents if they had bet more than they could afford, if they were chasing losses or had relied on friends and family financially in the previous 12 months.

There was a higher-than-expected increase in risky gambling from 2024 to 2025, Dr Suomi said.

Online gambling markets are driving the year-on-year increase in risk gambling. Except for lottery and sports betting, a greater proportion of gambling was conducted online in 2025 compared to the previous year.

"It's allowing more of that type of continuous play. You can gamble from anywhere, anytime. If you have problems, it's quite difficult to stop," Dr Suomi said.

"It's also impacting on this new shifting demographics of people who gamble and gamble at risky levels, because you can take your devices anywhere.

"We've now seen for the first time that parents with children are at risk."

Dr Sumoi said this increase among parents was supported by other research.

Gambling risk is significantly higher for men, young people aged 18 to 24, the unemployed, couples with children, low-income households and culturally and linguistically diverse groups.

"Risky gambling was also higher in individuals who gambled more frequently, reported higher rates of psychological distress and loneliness than in the general population," the report said.

The most common form of gambling among Australians is buying lottery tickets, followed by scratchies.

Compared to 2024, more people are buying scratch tickets, playing bingo and electronic gaming machines (such as pokies), and betting on races and sports. Fewer people are buying lottery and raffle tickets.

The 2024 ACT gambling survey found fewer Canberrans were playing poker machines, but Dr Suomi said electronic gaming machines were still "the most harmful" form of gambling.

"Particularly in ACT, among young people, there's high participation in the poker machines and EGMs and they are still the most harmful, but they are just not as readily available anymore as online [gambling]," she said.