New research by Bond University Professor of Marketing, Dr Sudhir Kale that looks at gambling, particularly gambling on poker, among Victorian teenagers has been released.
The study, conducted on behalf of the Victorian Department of Justice’s Office of Gaming and Racing, was funded through the Community Support Fund as part of round two of the Grants for Gambling Research program.
Based on an online survey of 2,000 respondents aged 15-19, Dr Kale researched teenagers’ motivations for gambling, the role of impulsivity and sensation-seeking in gambling, and the reliability and validity of previously used instruments to assess problem gambling and gambling cognitions.
One startling finding emerging from this research was the very high risk of problem gambling among those teenagers who have played poker for money even once in their life.
Almost one in five teenagers who have gambled on poker faces the risk of being a problem gambler compared to about one in twenty in the general teenage population.
Teenagers belonging to poker clubs are particularly vulnerable to becoming problem gamblers.
Dr Kale explained the purpose of this research was to fill a void in extant research on gambling among teenagers.
“Until now, there has been no reliable data on teenage poker gambling in Australia, even though the topic has attracted enormous attention from popular media over the last decade,” said Dr Kale.
“If we are to carry out serious discourse on youth and gambling, we better have some empirical data to guide our discussions.
“Besides assessing gambling risk among poker players, we wanted to know what attracts teenagers to poker gambling, how often they play poker, and where,” he said.
The current research has profound implications for policy makers, counsellors, social welfare agencies, as well as scholars investigating youth gambling.
For further information, you can contact Professor Kale at [email protected].