Betting on the evidence: Situating gambling problems in the Indigenous population of the Northern Te

1
Betting on the evidence Situating gambling
problems in the Indigenous population of the
Northern Territory

• Matthew Stevens
• Funded by the Community Benefit Fund

2
Gambling in the NT Aboriginal populationLack
of recent evidence

• Little recent evidence available on gambling
  related problems
• What are the levels of reported gambling problems
  in the NT and around Australia?
• Do gambling problems occur with other social
  personal problems in the same way for Indigenous
  and non-Indigenous people?
• Analysis of the 2002 NATSISS and 2002 GSS for the
  Northern Territory

3
Recent political climate in the NT

• Little Children are Sacred (Wild Anderson, June
  2007)
• Gambling mentioned 36 times and in all instances
  except one, in the same sentence as alcohol, drug
  abuse and pornography
• Closing the Gap on Indigenous Disadvantage A
  Generational Plan of Action (NTG, 2008)
• NT government response 12 months on

4
Recommendations and Responses
5
Scholars dividedPositive and Negative Impacts

• Late 70s to early 80s seen as relatively benign
  activity (unregulated)
• e.g. distributes income and social/fun activity,
  equated with hunting and gathering (Altman 1985,
  Goodale 1987)
• Other social/medical researchers tended to
  emphasise the negative impacts
• Impacts on child nutrition, financial stress
  increased family tensions (Hunter 1993, Hunter
  and Spargo 1988, Brady 2004)
• Association with other community contexts e.g.
  alcohol/drug abuse (McKnight 2002)

6
Gambling as a political concern

• It is common to see gambling grouped with other
  social vices in government policy and research
  documents
• Public health/social harm minimisation verses
  associated gambling related problems within the
  sphere of the individual
• Inconsistencies between jurisdictions
• Different policy approaches across jurisdictions
  (gt40 codes of practice)
• Limited regulatory government intervention
  proactive positioning of industry are central
  regulatory principle in the NT
• Codes limited by resource constraints (Fogarty
  and Young 2008)

7
A public health approach

• Examples alcohol, pornography, community safety,
  tobacco
• Laws to limit access to certain available goods
  and services (e.g. drinking restrictions,
  TV/movies /literature classifications, fines
  etc.)
• An informed public health approach that minimises
  harm requires an evidence base

8
National Definition of Problem Gambling

• Problem gambling is characterised by difficulties
  limiting money and/or time spent on gambling,
  which leads to adverse consequences for the
  gambler, others or the community.
• (Neale et al. 2005)

9
Is gambling problematic now?

• Early 90s increasing patronage of casino
  indications of gambling phases (Foote, 1996)
• Card playing viewed by Aboriginal people as
  positive (social, distributive), but tended to
  view pokies as problematic (McMillen and Togni,
  2000)
• Problem gambling 2-3 times higher based on two
  estimates (SOGS 4.0 v. 1.9 CPGI 7.9 v.
  2.5) (Young, Stevens Morris, 2007)
• Indigenous more likely to be monthly poker
  machine players (47 cf. 33)
• Variation between communities in attitudes to
  gambling including cards (McDonald and Wombo,
  2006)

10
NEGATIVE LIFE EVENTS SCALE 2002 NATSISS and GSS

• Gambling problems
• Alcohol or drug related problems
• Witness to violence
• Abuse or violent crime
• Trouble with the police
• Divorce or separation
• Not able to get a job
• Lost job, made redundant, sacked
• Death of family member or close friend
• Serious illness or disability
• Serious accident

11
2002 Reported gambling problems
Source 2002 NATISS 2002 GSS (ABS, 2004, 2005)
12
Aims

• What is the relationship between gambling
  problems and other items in the Negative Life
  Events Scale (NLES)?
• What are the demographic, socioeconomic and
  socio-cultural correlates of reported gambling
  problems in the NT?

13
Methods

• Australian Bureau of Statistics data
• 2002 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
  Islander Social Survey (NATSISS)
• 2002 General Social Survey (GSS)
• Factor Analysis of NLES items
• Logistic regression used to assess adjusted
  associations between gambling problems and
  demographic, socio-economic, socio-cultural and
  other explanatory variables

14
Results NT NLES Factor Analysis
x Loadings greater than 0.50 o Loading
greater than 0.40
15
NATSISS Significant multivariate adjusted
correlates of gambling problems Figure 1
16
NATSISS Significant multivariate adjusted
correlates of gambling problems Figure 2
17
GSS Significant multivariate adjusted correlates
of gambling problems Figure 1
18
Identify any differential associations between
Indigenous and general population analysis

• Variables with same directional association
• Cash flow problems, participation in social/
  recreational activities, and victim of threatened
  of physical violence

19
Variables with different directional association

• Household income, self-reported health

20
Caveats to the analysis

• Different scope between the GSS and NATSISS
  (non-remote v. all NT)
• Estimates biased up in discrete community sample
  because of greater social connectedness ? skin
  groups
• Confounding through unmeasured variables (e.g.
  community size/location)

21
Key messages

• Broader social context very important
• Structural factors such as housing shortages more
  likely to alleviate problems
• Gambling problems do situate with other public
  health concerns such as
• alcohol and drug abuse, and
• Crime and law and order issues
• Differences in associations between Indigenous
  and non-Indigenous population ? targeted policy

22
Concluding comments

• NTG response to gambling in communities located
  the problem predominantly with individuals
• Gambling counselling expansion, education
• Clearly gambling is interconnected with a range
  of social and structural contexts placing
  gambling in isolation in policy is unlikely to
  have much effect on negative aspects of gambling
• Programs addressing the structural influences are
  more likely to influence the negative aspects of
  gambling, particularly in remote communities

23

• The types of gambling activities played and how
  these interact with risk,
• Understanding the links between unregulated and
  regulated forms of gambling. For example, does
  someone who learns card game gambling from a very
  young age have increased risk of developing
  gambling problems in adulthood?
• Whether winnings from community card games taken
  out of the communities and if yes, then where is
  the money going?
• The amount time being spent gambling
  (particularly card games in remote communities),
  with a focus on parents of children.
• What are the types of problems (food problems
  from losing money), social problems in terms of
  time spent fulfilling other social obligations?
• Who are the people at higher risk of developing
  problems?
• matthew.stevens_at_cdu.edu.au
• Questions