A profile of problem gambling clients in Northern NSW

This paper analyses the first four and a half years of client data from the Northern Rivers Gambling Service (NRGS), an outpatient gambling counselling and education service operated by The Buttery in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Because the NRGS provides the vast majority of problem gambling services in the region, these data provide an accurate and comprehensive profile of people presenting for gambling problems in the region. This paper profiles these clients in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics, gambling activity, gambling problems, and treatment details. Compared to the findings of the Productivity Commission’s (1999) Survey of Clients of Counselling Agencies, the NRGS deals with a higher proportion of males, single people, people on government pensions, and clients whose main gambling activity is gaming machines. Clients at the NRGS also appear to have a longer duration of gambling problems when first presenting for treatment.