Clubs, Spades, Diamonds and Disadvantage: the Geography of Electronic Gaming Machines in Melbourne

Abstract

Opportunities to gamble, particularly on electronic gaming machines (EGMs) have been rapidly increasing in Australia during the 1990s. The increase in expenditure on gambling and the related problems have subsequently become a growing concern, particularly in relation to disadvantaged sectors of the population. Given this, the development of a geography of gambling is an important step in understanding the implications of this rapidly expanding industry. This paper addresses this issue at two distinct geographical scales in metropolitan Melbourne and considers the distribution of EGMs in relation to levels of economic well‐being. Findings suggest that patterns evident at the wider Melbourne scale of greater concentration of EGMs in less advantaged regions are also reflected at a local level. These findings are related to the wider issues of accessibility to gambling facilities and problem gambling.

Placing Bets: gambling venues and the distribution of harm

“…There has been relatively less attention paid to the geography of EGM gambling, despite the inherently geographic nature of the phenomenon, involving as it does a set of spatial relationships between individual gambling venues and the characteristics of supporting populations. For example, we know that EGM venues are disproportionately located in poorer areas both in Australia (Marshall & Baker 2000, 2001a and overseas (Gilliland & Ross 2005;Wheeler et al 2006;Pearce et al 2008;Robitaille & Herjean 2008). In addition, spatial and temporal accessibility has been linked to both gambling participation (Productivity Commission 1999;Marshall et al 2004;Baker & Marshall 2005;Marshall 2005; South Australian Centre for Economic Studies 2005; Young et al 2012) and problem gambling (Storer et al 2009).…”

“…Studies of the distribution of EGMs in Melbourne and Sydney have shown socio-economically disadvantaged local government areas (LGAs) to be more heavily supplied than their better-off counterparts (Marshall & Baker 2000, 2001a. This association is produced by a whole raft of urban geographic processes affecting the operation of markets including government policy (restrictions on supply), local political action, ethnic and cultural variations in host areas, and the historical patterns of development (Marshall & Baker 2001b).…”

Player Preferences and Social Harm: An Analysis of the Relationships Between Player Characteristics, Gambling Modes, and Problem Gambling

“…For example, in the case of electronic gaming machines (EGMs), while there is variation at the local scale of analysis (McMillen and Doran 2006), a negative relationship between the number of machines in a particular areas and the its socioeconomic status has been consistently identified (Doran et al 2007;Marshall 1999;Marshall 2005;Marshall and Baker 2001a;Marshall and Baker 2001b;Marshall and Baker 2002;Marshall et al 2004;Productivity Commission 1999;South Australian Centre for Economic Studies 2005). In other words, gambling participation is socially patterned in that different social groups are likely to gamble on specific gambling modes which in turn generate particular problem gambling outcomes.…”

The relationship between electronic gaming machine accessibility and police-recorded domestic violence: A spatio-temporal analysis of 654 postcodes in Victoria, Australia, 2005–2014

“…Ecological studies of the impact of gambling accessibility on crime have had mixed results and have rarely focused on domestic violence specifically. This relative scholarly neglect is perhaps unsurprising, as both domestic violence (DeVerteuil, 2015) and gambling (Marshall & Baker, 2001) have been subject to relatively little geographic research.…”

“…As economic disadvantage is another key variable that is associated with both recorded domestic violence (Beyer et al, 2015;Pinchevsky & Wright, 2012) and EGM density (Marshall & Baker, 2001 …”