The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs recently published an Occasional Paper prepared by the SA Centre for Economic Studies on problem gamblers and the role of the financial sector.

The focus of the paper is to ascertain the behaviour of problem gamblers in Australia with regards to accessing funds, particularly from joint bank and/or home loan accounts, and to consult with the financial sector, relevant government agencies, financial counsellors and gambling counsellors, to make recommendations about measures the financial sector can implement to reduce the risk of problem gamblers withdrawing funds from these accounts with which to gamble.

The report details current measures that exist to assist problem gamblers, proposes new measures that could be implemented, identifies barriers to implementing policy solutions at the financial sector level,  and suggests areas for further research.