Research on Women and Gambling

Women's Health West has produced a great deal of indepth research on women and gambling, particularly as part of the Healthy, Wealthy and Wise Women project in 1999-2001. Additional research on gambling has been done through the Beyond Symptoms Health Needs Analysis (2002).

Some of this research is available in hard copy only, and some as downloadable PDF files. Contact us to obtain a hard copy of any of the following publications.

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise Women: the health impacts of gambling on women in Melbourne's Western Metropolitan Region (2000)
Sarah Brown with Kelley Johnson, Alun C. Jackson, Janis Fook, and Johanna Wynn and Carolyn Rooke. Women's Health West, University of Melbourne and Deakin University. Melbourne 2000.

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise Women was a two-year action research project of which this report constitutes the final research phase. The project aimed to develop interventions that would minimise the negative impacts of gambling on the health of women living in Melbourne's Western Metropolitan Region.

This report documents the multi-faceted reasons why women gamble and how they are affected by their own gambling activities and by those of family and community members. More specifically, the health impacts of gambling viewed from a social model of health are illustrated, along with the health interventions that were suggested by women. The report builds on the knowledge gleaned from service provider's experiences of assisting women who are adversely affected by gambling, reported in Women's Health West's earlier report, Who Picks Up The Tab? The major tasks undertaken in this component of the research included a review of existing literature, documentation of gambling within a regional context, and focus groups and interviews with 211 women from diverse backgrounds.

This report will be available via this website in September 2005. For a hard copy contact Women's Health West.

Who Picks Up The Tab? Issues and dilemmas for services providing mainstream support to women affected by Gambling in Melbourne's Western Metropolitan Region (1999)
Sarah Brown with Kelley Johnson, Alun Jackson and Johanna Wynn. Women's Health West, Melbourne 1999.

This is a report on phase one of a two-year action research project into women and gambling in Melbourne's Western Metropolitan Region. The project aimed to develop interventions to minimise the negative impacts on women's health and wellbeing. This report documents issues faced by services providing support to women, along with the perceived health impacts of gambling and suggested health interventions. It is based on a literature review, documentation of gambling in a regional context, a survey and interviews with service providers, a community gambling survey and community focus groups.

This report is available in hard copy only, to request one contact Women's Health West.

Women, Gambling, Culture, Health: an annotated bibliography featuring articles about women and the health impact of gambling from a regional and cultural perspective (1998)
Sarah Brown, Sandra McLure and Dr Kelley Johnson. Women's Health West and University of Melbourne, Melbourne 1998.

An initiative of the University of Melbourne's School of Social Work and Women's Health West's 'Healthy Wealthy and Wise Women' project, this bibliography aimed to discover what had already been researched about the impact of gambling on women. It includes a focus on cultural diversity and youth gambling, as well as information for service providers on how to deal with the effects of problem gambling on families and communities.

There are more than 180 references categorised under the following headings: Addiction, Causes, Cultural, Definitions, Gender, Forms of Gambling, Health, History, Impacts of Gambling, Interventions, Media, Measures of Gambling, Psychology, Prevalence, Policy/Politics, Regional, Youth, Problem Gambling.

You can download the bibliography (PDF 503KB), or obtain a hard copy by contacting Women's Health West.

Who Wins? Women and Gambling in the Western Metropolitan Region of Melbourne (1997)
Kim Webster with Kerrie Taylor and Dr Kelley Johnson. Women's Health West, Melbourne 1997.

This report is on a small qualitative pilot research project carried out by Women's Health West on the impact of gambling for women in Melbourne's Western Metropolitan Region. In the study women were invited to participate in a focus group that explored the meanings they attributed to gambling and the impact it had on their lives. The study was important in that it sought women's views about the impact of gambling and placed these within context of the communities in which the women lived. The study also provided the basis for a much larger research project by Women's Health West in partnership with the University of Melbourne School Of Social Work, funded by VicHealth.

This report is available in hard copy only, to request one contact Women's Health West.