Reducing the impact of gambling harms in the community
We collaborate with communities, industry partners, government, community groups and treatment providers to apply our research in the real world, through policy and practice.
Community engagement and impact
Our world-leading research aims to use knowledge gained from the nexus with clinical expertise to lead to new, more effective prevention, harm minimisation and treatment approaches. We share our research broadly to ensure it contributes to policy and practice including how governments think about and regulate gambling, how industry implements sustainable harm-minimisation practices, and to assist stakeholders in understanding and developing strategies to reduce gambling-related harm. We prioritise research which has strong dissemination and implementation-ready outcomes to influence policy and practice in a meaningful way. Our research team actively engage with stakeholders throughout all stages of our research including community members, gambling consumers, and individuals with lived experience of gambling harms.
Our research is fully integrated with our Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic, where we provide real help to more than 1000 people with gambling problems each year. This community cohort allows us to trial new, state-of-the-art treatments and prevention strategies to the people who need them most including preventing harms before they become severe. We can test the efficacy of new interventions with a relevant population. This integration means we can roll out the best new strategies to the broader community as quickly as possible.
Our undergraduate and postgraduate research program provides unique opportunities for research students to gain real-world experience as they study. At the same time, our research and clinical insights are quickly transferred to graduates who can go on to practise in a wide variety of settings outside the University of Sydney.
Research Priorities
Our team research priorities include:
How we conduct our research
We believe that it is critical to engage with all stakeholders to bring about changes which will meaningfully reduce gambling-related harms. Furthermore, it is not possible to evaluate interventions and practices for gambling in a simulated setting. As such, we work with consumers, treatment and community organisations, government-based regulators and policy advisors, and the gambling industry. This includes partnership, in-kind and direct research funding, and access to de-identified data. To reduce any perceived conflicts of interest, we follow strict protocols to protect the integrity of all research conducted. This includes:
Thank you for your interest in undertaking a research internship within the Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic (GTRC) within the School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney.
The purpose of our internship program is to provide highly motivated and talented students the opportunity to gain advanced research experience and supervision to enhance their research skills and knowledge. It is intended that interns make a positive contribution during their time at the GTRC and ideally generate a research output.
We are looking for motivated and enthusiastic individuals who have some relevant research or related experience. These attributes ensure that interns are able to make meaningful contributions to research projects while working in a collaborative environment both under supervision and independently.
To assess your readiness to work on the relevant projects and your suitability for this role, we have developed a task that we would like you to complete after we receive your initial application. Following this task, we may invite you to participate in an interview via Zoom or in-person.
To submit an initial application, please send the following to Sally Gainsbury:
Please note that no support is available for VISA applications and no funding or financial support is provided for these positions.
As digital payments increase in popularity this research seeks to understand how cashless gambling environments, including venues, impact customer spend. Account-based payments provide the ability to track and be notified of spend, set limits, and take breaks which may be impactful harm-minimisation tools. We are working with various stakeholders to explore the impact of cashless gambling on harms.
Current projects include working on a trial of cashless technology with Liquor & Gaming NSW and ALH Group and a study to understand customer preferences with West HQ.
Recently completed projects include Tom Swanton’s PhD project including a systematic review, focus groups to understand consumer attitudes towards cashless payments, and an experimental study to assess consumer preferences for an account-based payment system. Funding was provided by NSW Office of Responsible Gambling.
Researchers: Professor Sally Gainsbury, Thomas Swanton, Professor Ellen Garbarino, Professor Sharon Collard (Bristol University), Associate Professor Daniel Gozman
Publications:
Preventing the experience of severe gambling-related harms would be highly beneficial for individuals, their families, and the broader community. There has been minimal research to understand what tools and resources can help those who choose to gamble do so in a sustainable and lower risk way. Resources need to be developed for specific populations for example based on age and participation in different gambling activities (e.g., online sports betting vs. pokies). Digital resources are scalable, reaching a broad population, and can be accessed in private in a convenient and time-relevant manner.
Resources being investigated include:
Researchers: Professor Sally Gainsbury, Dr. Elizabeth Stratton, Professor Nicolas Glozier, Dr. Christopher Hunt, Associate Professor Simon Rodda, Dr. Dilushi Chandrakumar, Dr. Louise Thornton
Publications:
Consumer protection tools aim to increase the ability for customers to gamble in a sustainable way and manage their gambling such as the ability to set limits on gambling expenditure, player activity statements that summarise recent gambling activity, and time-outs which enable gamblers to temporarily block access to their gambling accounts. This project aims to evaluate current practices related to consumer protection tools online and in venues and investigate the uptake and effect of these. The research includes survey, trials of various interventions including customised real-time messages triggered by behavioural risk indicators, and analysis of customer data.
Researchers: Professor Sally Gainsbury, Professor Agnieszka Tymula, Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark, Dr Jonathan Levy, Dr. Robert Heirene, Dr. Louise Thornton, Dr. Elizabeth Stratton, Teejay Santos
Funding: Sportsbet, Entain, Brain and Mind Centre, Life Course Centre (ARC CRE), International Center for Responsible Gaming
Publications:
Gambling regulators internationally are increasingly requiring gambling operators identify and intervene with individuals exhibiting signs of gambling problems. However, limited research is available to inform efforts to identify customers with gambling problems and particularly those experiencing lower levels of harm who would benefit from modifying their behaviour to reduce potentially problematic outcomes. This research aims to analyse customer account data provided from industry operators and identify account-based markers of gambling harms.
Access to large customer datasets will enable a broad range of research questions to be addressed focusing on understanding gambling behaviour to drive policies and practices to reduce gambling harm.
Researchers: Professor Sally Gainsbury, Professor Agnieszka Tymula, Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark, Dr Robert Heirene
Funding: Entain, Life Course Centre (ARC CRE), International Center for Responsible Gaming, West HQ
Problem gambling is highly related to social and economic disadvantage and involves decision-making and highly biased thinking patterns leading to risky behaviours. This project aims to further our understanding of the role of self-control and the impact of gambling outcomes (i.e., wins and losses) in gambling decisions as well as the customer’s ability to make informed choices. We will also look at the interrelation with socioeconomic disadvantage by considering differences between individuals across regional settings.
Researchers: Professor Sally Gainsbury, Professor Agnieszka Tymula, Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark, Dr Jonathan Levy
Funding: Entain, Life Course Centre (ARC CRE), West HQ
Publications:
The GTRC is building upon existing relationships with Aboriginal services to engage elders as peer-support workers to provide ongoing support throughout the referral and treatment process. This promotes engagement in therapy among attendees and builds the peer-support worker’s knowledge of therapeutic process, enhancing their capacity to discuss this within their community and enhance referrals.
Funding: NSW Office of Responsible Gambling
Researchers: Dr. Christopher Hunt, Kirsten Shannon, Professor Sally Gainsbury
Venue staff training in responsible gambling is a strategy adopted by many gaming providers to help prevent or reduce potential gambling-related harms. Research on existing venue staff training suggest methods in place do not assist in increasing staff members' ability to proactively interact with customers who show early warning signs of distress. Training does, however, increase staff members knowledge of what signs of problem gambling look like and, therefore, increase their ability to identify customers who might be at risk. The GTRC worked with the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling to capitalise on the strengths of existing staff training programs and teach enhanced skills to proactively intervene with customers showing potential warning signs. The GTRC comprehensively evaluated the implementation of the program and assessing the full impact of the training on venue staff members and customers. Working with the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling, the new staff training program has now been rolled out across venues in NSW to improve staff ability to proactively identify and intervene when gambling harms are identified.
Researchers: Emeritus Professor Alex Blaszczynski, Kristin Economou, Professor Sally Gainsbury, Dr. Dylan Pickering, Jay Robinson
Funding: NSW Office of Responsible Gambling, ClubsNSW
Publications:
Measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) resulted in the mass closure of gambling venues and cancellation of major sporting events, leaving limited opportunities for gambling. COVID-19 left many Australians without jobs or with reduced incomes. Situations of economic hardship, social isolation, and increased psychological distress combined with the closure of gambling venues may have a significant impact on gambling and related problems in Australia. This study aimed to understand the impact of the shutdown on gambling over time in the context of its financial and effects.
Researchers: Associate Professor Sally Gainsbury, Professor Alex Blaszczynski, Thomas Swanton, Dr Martin Burgess, Dr Nicola Black
Publications:
Electronic gaming machines have been developed that incorporate elements of skill borrowed from video games within random chance mechanics of gaming machine. Not currently regulated to be provided in Australia, these are available in some U.S. jurisdictions and aim at attracting a new market, including younger players and consumers that enjoy playing video, mobile and online games. Research aimed to determine the impact of skill-based gambling machines (SGMs) including the extent to which players understand the role of skill vs. chance, which consumers might be interested in these, the impact on gambling-related cognitions and behaviours and the impact on gambling harms. Completed research studies include: 1) a survey of online U.S.-based participants; 2) a survey of participants from U.S. casinos who have played skill-based gambling machines; 3) experimental studies, focus groups, and cognitive interviews (talking aloud while playing) of Australians within a laboratory at USyd using SGMs and EGMs.
Researchers: Professor Sally Gainsbury, Dr. Kahlil Philander, Washington State University, Professor Alex Blaszczynski
Funding: In-kind support for US casino research provided by GameCo. Funding for USyd trials received from Wymac Gaming Solutions. Permission to use EGMs for research provided by Liquor & Gaming NSW
Publications:
Various projects conducted to understand the impact of emerging technologies on risk-taking behaviour and behavioural addictions, including gambling disorder.
Researchers: Professor Sally Gainsbury, Professor Thorsten Teichert, Dr. Brett Abarbanel, Professor Alex Blaszczynski,
Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award to Dr. Gainsbury
Publications:
In a collaborative project with scholars from Harvard University and the University of Nevada Las Vegas we explored the uptake of open science (i.e., transparent research practices) within the field of gambling studies. The first study involved a scoping review of the gambling literature to determine the extent to which open science practices such as pre-registration and data and code sharing have been adopted by gambling researchers to date. In a second study, we evaluated the quality and specificity of pre-registrations of gambling research. From this, we hope to bring attention to value the pre-registering one’s studies, and to highlight the importance of doing this well if wanting to reduce concerns of bias (e.g., p-hacking, HARKing).
Researchers: Dr. Robert Heirene, Professor Sally Gainsbury, Dr. Brittany Keen, Professor Debi LaPlante, Dr. Eric Louderback
Funding: Division on Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance
Publications: