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Social and problem gambling:preferences and participationGambling is an issue at the forefront of the Australiansocial policy agenda. While most people can enjoy somelevel of gambling as a pleasant and socially acceptableactivity, for some, gambling can develop into a seriousproblem, with a significant detrimental effect on financialsituation, health, and family life. According to Breenet al (2010) little is known about Indigenous Australiangambling despite the introduction of card games byMacassan traders over 300 years ago and the fact thatcard rings are still a widespread acceptable form of socialrecreation in many Indigenous communities (McMillenand Donnelly 2008, in Breen et al 2010).More generally, the 2010 Productivity Commission’sreport on gambling classified 115,000 Australians asproblem gamblers and a further 280,000 as moderate-riskgamblers. It is estimated that, for each problem gambler,at least five other people are affected by their addiction(Productivity Commission 1999): family members sufferfrom increased levels of stress, depression and anxiety,financial hardship, social isolation, relationship breakdown,and poor work or study performance. The children ofproblem gamblers can also be affected by their parents’problems, feeling angry, anxious or depressed, havingpoorer attendance or performance at school, developingbehaviour problems, experiencing social withdrawaland isolation, and having poorer emotional, mentaland physical health (SA Department for Families andCommunities 2008). Moreover, the propensity to gamble,like other behaviours and attitudes, may be passedfrom one generation to the next: research shows thatchildren with parents who are problem gamblers are upto 10 times more likely to become problem gamblersthemselves than their peers (Problem Gambling Treatmentand Research Centre 2010).For the first time in wave 3, primary carer respondentswere asked a series of questions about gambling,including card games and lotteries. Of the respondentswho answered these questions, 46.4 per cent indicatedthat they did not gamble at all.Card games were particularly popular. About one-fifth ofall respondents reported playing card games (Table 59).This pastime was more prevalent in areas that wererelatively more isolated; 28.3 to 32.4 per cent of primarycarers in regions with moderate to extreme isolationreported playing cards at least once a year, comparedwith 20.8 per cent in areas with low isolation, and only10.9 per cent in non-isolated areas.It is worth noting that playing cards is not necessarily aform of gambling. Even when it does involve betting, itmay be for very low or nominal amounts of money orfor some kind of token with no monetary value. Playingcards may represent an opportunity for entertainmentand social interaction rather than gambling, especially inisolated areas where other forms of entertainment maynot be readily available. Table 60 provides some evidenceto support this theory. The proportion of respondents whodid not spend any money on gambling activities washigher in the moderately to extremely isolated areas thanin the areas with no or low isolation.Table 59: How often primary carer plays card games, by LORI, per centLORIFrequencyNone (urban) Low ModerateHigh orextremeAll areasEvery day 0.0 0.4 2.1 0.7 0.6A few times a week 0.3 0.7 2.1 5.8 1.3About once a week or onthe weekend1.3 3.6 10.1 9.4 4.4About once a fortnight 1.9 3.6 4.3 2.9 3.1About once a month 1.6 4.2 3.7 6.5 3.6A few times a year 5.9 8.3 10.1 2.9 7.4Not at all 89.1 79.2 67.6 71.7 79.6Number of respondents 376 697 188 138 1,399Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children | Key Summary Report from Wave 369