Material for this review was drawn from the Australasian Gambling Review produced annually by Delfabbro and LeCouteur (2007) for the Independent Gambling Authority of South Australia.

The aim of the review was to provide:

  1. A critical review of recent Australian gambling research and the extent to which this can be used to inform jurisdictional and national public health policy.

  2. Inform the research priorities under the National Framework on Problem Gambling 2004-2008.

  3. From the perspective of research utility informing national and inter-jurisdictional policies a number of factors were examined. These were (i) the scientific quality of the research; (ii) the methodological comparability; (iii) the role of contextual factors and (iv) the needs of final users.

The report provides an analyses of research in terms of the extent to which the findings meet the needs of different stakeholders e.g. policy-makers, regulators, treatment/service providers and researchers. The suggested research areas identified in the report have been classified according to the following five broad spheres:

  • Prevalence research

  • Research into the impacts of problem gambling

  • EGMs and their role in gambling and problem gambling

  • Harm minimisation strategies, interventions and services

  • Economic and geographic impact studies.

This report was prepared by Associate Professor Paul Delfabbro, School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, South Australia.