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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-05-14 Daily Xml
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Gamblers Rehabilitation Fund

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:44): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Human Services a question about the Gamblers Rehabilitation Fund.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: In a government report released today, the proportion of South Australians gambling online has nearly tripled since 2012. The report reveals 13 per cent of the population bet online in 2018, up from 5 per cent in 2012 and just 1 per cent in 2005; and 9.6 per cent of online gamblers have a gambling problem, a rate three times higher than offline gamblers.

The report also found, amongst other things, online betting was far more likely to turn into problem gambling than any other forms. Online gamblers are also more likely to be younger than people who bet in more traditional ways. With the minister acknowledging that at-risk groups were men, the unemployed, the single, divorced or separated, under 24s and Indigenous people. The deleterious effects of gambling addiction are well known. I will quote the minister, who said:

The increase in online gambling is concerning and reflective of a greater accessibility to the internet, but is also an important sign that the State Government needs to continue to assist people gambling online through our help services.

My questions to the minister are:

1. Can the minister advise, of the near $6 million spent by the Gamblers Rehabilitation Fund for 2017-18 on front-line services, how much was actually spent assisting people with online gambling addictions?

2. Can the minister advise, for the six months from July 2018 to December 2018, how much of the near $3.5 million spent by the fund on front-line services was spent on assisting people with online gambling addiction?

3. Will the Liberal Marshall government commit to increasing funding to the Gamblers Rehabilitation Fund in line with increases in online gambling?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for her important question and for her interest in this area. I think she has done a splendid job of summarising what has been reported through the 2018 Gambling Prevalence Survey, in which the matter of an increase in online gambling was one which was highlighted, an increase from 5 per cent in 2012 to 13 per cent, which is nearly triple.

One of the statistics which I am not sure whether the honourable member did quote from is that the proportion of problem gamblers overall is at about 0.7 per cent, which has been relatively stable for that period from 2012 to 2018. I think you could look at it that it is either pleasing that it hasn't gone up, or not pleasing that it hasn't gone down, but I think it is relevant that that figure is quite stable.

We fund a number of gambling services. The budget for 2018-19 is $7.2 million. We fund a range of services that provide advice and assistance to people, particularly Relationships Australia, Uniting Country SA and a range of other services. I will see whether we can break down that information into whether the particular people who have been assisted are problem gamblers and whether we can get that data for her, but I suspect these services provide a range of different services which might include advice and so on, and whether they keep those particular statistics and report them back to us, I am not sure whether we have that information available but I will see what we can find.

Also to comment too that clearly the modes of gambling have changed and therefore the services themselves will be adapting to those into the future, so we will be talking to all of those providers about how we better provide services to assist those who may have a specific problem with online gambling.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Bonaros, a supplementary.

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