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| Hospitality Magazine column Perception vs Reality There seems to be a constant flood of negative reporting on the impact of gaming machines on New Zealanders, their families and the community. A sampling of a week’s newspapers will outline a litany of concerns from the problem gambler who finds themselves in front of the courts, to the astonishing statistics provided by the Problem Gambling Foundation which would have most New Zealand communities ranking high in the number of machines per head of population, venues per head of population, spending on gaming machines and dollars lost to gaming machines per head of population. But does this picture reflect what is actually happening in the New Zealand community as in regards to gaming machines? The public certainly seem to think so, accordi8ng to data released by Internal Affairs concerning changes in New Zealanders’ gambling prevalence and attitudes to gaming from 1985 through to 2005. Worryingly, 19% in 1985 agreed with the proposition there is a growing problem with gambling. In 2005 this has grown to 51% - which indicates that the New Zealand public are responding to the negative media picture about a growing problem with gambling, and in particular gaming machines. Growing concerns about gambling reflects society’s thinking, but are they truly reflective of what is actually happening as far as gambling and gambling harm is concerned, or is it a self fulfilling prophecy? The same survey also looks at how prevalent New Zealanders’ engagement in gambling actually is. It is interesting to note that the proportion of respondents who had NOT undertaken any gambling activities continued to increase from 10% in 1990 to 20% in 2005, despite an increase in gambling activities available during this time. Further, 92% of non-casino gaming machine participants played for less than two hours per session, and 55% played for less than half an hour. Surprisingly, the highest average annual spending on gambling activities by those who had participated in that activity was for horse or dog racing betting, ($891) followed by internet gambling ($716) and housie ($602). Furthermore, the overall average amount reportedly spent on all gambling activities by respondents actually decreased between 2000 and 2005 and in inflation adjusted terms this amounts to $529 in 2000 compared with $474 in 2005. The highest reported annual expenditure averaged for all respondents by an activity was on Lotto, ($149) followed by non-casino gaming machines at $96. New Zealanders growing concerns at problems associated with gambling are completely disproportionate with how those same New Zealanders actually behave. This shows that the New Zealand fundraising industry has a huge challenge to get public attitudes to reflect reality. Bruce H Robertson |
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