KEY POINTS:
One in every six New Zealanders knows someone in their household or wider family who has got into financial trouble through gambling.
A nationwide "baseline" survey of 2000 people, conducted just before the start last March of a $3.9 million advertising campaign aimed at raising awareness of problem gambling, has also found that 9 per cent of New Zealanders admit to spending "more time and money gambling than I meant to" at least once in the previous year.
Professor Max Abbott, of the Auckland University of Technology, who has led previous gambling surveys, said there had been no previous measures of the gambling fallout on society through questions such as whether someone in "your wider family or household" had had to "go without something they needed, or not paid some bills" because too much was spent on gambling.
The result - 16 per cent said yes - was "higher than I would have thought", he said.
The survey confirms that the fallout is especially hard on low-income groups. Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of people in the poorest income areas said yes, compared with only 16 per cent of those in middle-income areas and 9 per cent in the richest areas.
More than a third (38 per cent) of Maori knew someone in their household or wider family who had got into financial trouble by gambling, compared with 28 per cent of Pacific people, 13 of Asians and 12 of Europeans and others.
The same income and ethnic pattern showed up to a lesser extent with people who admitted to having "spent more time and money than I meant to" at least once in the previous year. Eleven per cent of those in the poorest areas, 10 per cent in middling areas and 8 in rich areas said yes, as did 18 per cent of Maori, 12 of Pacific people, 7 of Asians and 8 of Europeans and others.
But Professor Abbott said there were some signs in the new data that the most addictive kinds of gambling might be declining.
His last two surveys found that 18 per cent of New Zealanders in 1991, and 10 per cent in 1999, gambled at least once a week on "continuous" activities, defined as poker machines, Instant Kiwi, horse or dog races, sports events, casino table games, housie, bingo, the internet and text games.
The latest survey found that only 4 per cent of the population gambled at least once a week on the same list of "continuous" activities, but excluding Instant Kiwi.
The three surveys also show a steady drop in numbers taking a Lotto ticket at least once a week - 42 per cent in 1991, 35 per cent in 1999 and just 18 per cent this year.
"So it does look as if there has been a reduction in people who gamble weekly or more often."
However, the survey shows little change in the numbers playing the pokies, which are regarded as the most addictive form of gambling.
Professor Abbott's last survey in 1999 found that 14 per cent of the population had played the pokies outside casinos, and 11 per cent inside casinos, some time in the previous six months.
Only 2 per cent had played them at least weekly outside the casinos, and the numbers playing them at least weekly in casinos was too small to register.
The latest survey found that 18 per cent had used pokies outside casinos, and 8 per cent inside, within the past 12 months - double the time measured seven years ago.
Again, only 1.8 per cent had used them at least once a week outside casinos, and just 0.1 per cent on a weekly basis inside casinos.
Asked about the costs or benefits of gambling, 66 per cent of people in the latest survey mentioned advantages, such as cash for community groups, while 72 per cent mentioned disadvantages such as family financial problems. Just over half (51 per cent) felt that raising money through gambling "does more harm than good", against 28 per cent who felt it "does more good than harm".
* Gambling helpline, 0800 654 655.
WANT TO BET?
Has someone in your wider family or household had to go without something they needed, or not paid some bills, because too much was spent on gambling?
Yes:
Poorest areas - 23 per cent
Middling areas - 16 per cent
Richest areas - 9 per cent
Maori - 38 per cent
Pacific 28 - per cent
Asian 13 - per cent
European/other - 12 per cent
Total - 16 per cent
Source: Health Sponsorship Council.
