Gamblers committing more crime

Gamblers committing more crime than previously thought, study finds

The relationship between gambling and criminal activity is better understood following a research project, jointly conducted by AUT University and the University of Auckland.

The study is the first of its kind worldwide to explore the link between gambling (including problem gambling) and unreported crime and was carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Health.

“It raises the possibility of the existence of two categories of crime-committing gamblers, exhibiting different chronologies of gambling and criminal behaviour,” says Dr Maria Bellringer, Co-Director of AUT University’s Gambling and Additions Research Centre.

From previous studies, carried out with prison inmates in 2000, Dr Bellringer and her team understood that criminal behaviours were committed in order to gamble or pay gambling related debts (i.e. gambling causes the crime).
She also noted that for some, their crimes caused their gambling, or they gambled instead of committing crime.

“We are now seeing the same trends amongst gamblers who are not incarcerated,” added Dr Bellringer
Almost two-thirds of the 33 participants said their first gambling-related crime was in the same year as, or just a few years after, starting regular gambling. For those already engaging in crime, criminal behaviours started a few years prior to commencement of regular gambling.
Eighty-five per cent recognised that their gambling had caused harm to others, including family or whanāu.

“There is substantial unreported gambling-related crime which is ‘invisible’ to the authorities,” says Dr Bellringer.
“This raises the possibility that there may be significant economic and social costs associated with gambling, due to unreported crime committed by gamblers who have not previously been factored into economic and social impact analyses of gambling.”

Fellow Director of AUT’s Gambling and Addictions Research Centre, Professor Max Abbott, says gambling-related crime is one of the more significant ways in which excessive gambling has highly toxic effects on individuals, families and the wider community.

“Some gambling related crimes, for example embezzlement of trust funds, harm large numbers of victims,” he added.
“This study highlights the importance of identifying problem gamblers who are at risk of committing crimes to support their gambling, and encouraging them to seek help from agencies such as the Problem Gambling Foundation, Salvation Army Oasis Centres or the Gambling Helpline before they offend”, says Dr Robert Brown from the University of Auckland.

The AUT University/University of Auckland study was undertaken by the Gambling and Addictions Research Centre in AUT’s National Institute for Public Health and Mental Health Research, and the Centre for Gambling Studies at the University of Auckland. It was a pilot study that may inform future research investigating the nature of the links between gambling and crime, with particular reference to unreported crime and the nature of the resulting harms experienced by individuals, families/ whanāu and communities.

ENDS

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