Abstract

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gambling participation, and levels of gambling harm across populations during the pandemic is now addressed in a well-established body of empirical literature. This literature highlights reduction in gambling frequency and expenditure overall, but also shows clear predictors of increased gambling during the global lockdowns, including male gender, young age, higher problem gambling severity, and a history of mental health concerns. There are fewer population-based cohort studies, however, examining the longer-term implications of COVID-19 regarding both the reduction in overall gambling, and the increase in some vulnerable groups. The present paper focuses on these patterns in recent data from 2023, that was collected more than 12 months since the last major lockdowns and related social restrictions in Australia. This data reports on findings out of the ANU CSRM COVID-19 Impact Monitoring Survey Series, a longitudinal population representative survey of Australian adults, taken from the Life in Australia Panel. It includes gambling participation and problem gambling severity data from 2019 (pre COVID-19), 2020, 2021 (during COVID-19) and 2023 (post COVID-19) showing the patterns of participation and gambling severity over time and across a range of gambling activities after COVID-19. These findings are discussed in the context of gambling harm prevention, and they can be used to inform how public health interventions and policy can adjust to the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on gambling in the post-pandemic era.

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