Tasmania's Treasurer Michael Aird has released the report of a comprehensive study into the impacts of gambling in his state.
"While there was no significant change in the prevalence of problem gambling, the study highlights the social costs are significant and the impact of gambling in lower socio economic communities is an area of concern," said Mr. Aird.
The study was commissioned by the Tasmanian government and conducted by the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies in 2007.
The study shall be repeated every three years in order to keep track of trends in the nature and impacts of gambling in Tasmania.
Among the study's key findings:
-the net economic impact of gambling was inconclusive, ranging from an estimated economic loss of $62.7 million, to an economic gain of $75.5 million per annum.
-the rate of problem gambling in 2007 has not changed significantly from the previous study in 2005 and remains relatively low with the rate of problem gamblers at .54 percent and gamblers with a moderate risk to be .86 percent of the adult population.
-the main source of gambling problems comes from electronic gaming machines whether they are in hotels, clubs or casinos.
-Tasmania has a lower concentration of electronic gaming machines per capita and gambling expenditure per capita than the national average.
-some local communities, characterized by higher socio economic disadvantage, appear to have disproportionately higher per capita gaming expenditure and higher concentrations of gaming machines.
The gambling study is available at the Treasury website.