Do we gamble by choice or by design of gaming machines and our social environment?

Australians gamble more than any other nation in the world. We spend over $11 billion each year on pokies; 70-80% of all problem gamblers are pokie players. The mental and social harms of gambling are on the rise. Each person with a gambling problem can negatively impact the lives of five to ten others, meaning up to five million Australians are affected each year.

Our social environments can powerfully manipulate our thoughts and behaviour. So powerfully, that gambling advertising and gaming machines such as pokies play a significant role in some people getting hooked on gambling. But what we should do about pokies and other forms of gambling depends on whether gambling is a free choice, or is driven by external forces in the environment.

The Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences (MICCN) at Monash University is hosting a free public debate on this significant issue on Wednesday 11 October 2017 in the Deakin Edge Auditorium, at Melbourne’s Federation Square. In the lead-up to the event, schools, community groups and individuals are invited to share their thoughts and experiences through a video competition, which carries $3,000 in prizes. You do not need to have had a personal experience of gambling to be eligible to enter. For more information about the competition, please visit Thinkable.

In their work, MICCN researchers and event hosts, Professor Murat Yücel and Dr Adrian Carter, examine how gambling and other compulsive behaviours affect our brains. Their work explores not just fundamental questions of neuroscience, but also the treatment and policy aspects of problem gambling. Professor Yücel believes “there is no doubt individuals come with their own dispositions to gambling, but the eventual problem lies in the interaction between the individual, the gambling paraphernalia and the gambling environment.” Dr Carter adds “We have allowed our environment to be designed in a way that drives us to gamble – the developers of pokie machines exploit our neuropsychology to get us hooked. And then we put these machines everywhere and normalise gambling through sports advertising. It is a recipe for disaster.”

The public debate, Hooked on gambling: by Choice or by Design, will explore these complex social, psychological and political challenges. The panel discussion will feature a number of experts from clinical and policy backgrounds, including:

  • Rev Tim Costello AO: spokesperson for Alliance for Gambling Reform, Chief Advocate of World Vision Australia, former spokesperson for the Interchurch Gambling Taskforce and former member of the National Advisory Body on Gambling
  • Dr Charles Livingstone: Senior Lecturer and head of the Gambling and Social Determinants unit (Monash University, Australia)
  • Carolyn Hirsh: Psychologist, former politician in the Victorian legislature, and past gambler who regularly shares her lived experience

The panellists will discuss questions such as:

  • Can people make a self-endorsed decision to gamble that is free from the influence of gaming machine design and the gambling environment?
  • How much control do design elements have on gambling behaviour?
  • How do gaming machines exploit the psychology of decision-making to maximise gambling?
  • What can be done to change our social environments to minimise the adverse impact of problem gambling while ensuring individuals’ freedom to have a flutter?

The FREE event forms part of Victorian Mental Health Week, and is an initiative of the David Winston Turner Endowment Fund; a transformational philanthropic investment supporting research into obsessive-compulsive disorder and addictions.

Don’t miss out! Register now.