Marketing gambling

Gambling researcher June Buchanan.

How do those selling electronic gaming machines or “pokies” operate after the Gaming Machines Act of 2001 put a ban on all forms of external advertising by clubs, hotels and casinos?

In her PhD research June Buchanan, a lecturer in the Department of Business at Macquarie University, is trying to find out how operators in this lucrative industry market their machines, given community concerns as well as regulatory constraints. There is currently little or no research on this topic.

Gambling in Australia

The Productivity Commission investigated Australia’s gambling industries in the late 1990s. The resulting Report noted that gaming machines dominate gambling activity, and account for half the total business and tax revenue collected from all forms of gambling.

Their national survey found that just over 80 per cent of the adult population gamble at some time every year, and almost 40 per cent are regular gamblers, playing at least once a week.

Problem gamblers are estimated as only 2 per cent of the adult population, although they spend a disproportionate amount.

“This is perhaps what has driven the focus by public policy makers, researchers and community groups on ‘problem’ gambling,” says Buchanan.

Gambling and marketing

Most marketing theory and literature considers marketing as an exchange between willing parties in a relatively constraint-free environment.

Gambling could perhaps be best seen as a form of entertainment, where there is a chance of winning some money. The Productivity Commission Report says that gambling often becomes problematic when people regard it as a realistic means of increasing their wealth, rather than something that will cost them money. They should rather see what they do as like going to the football or the theatre, entertainment which is paid for.

Lobbying by groups on both sides of the debate, such as anti-gambling groups and the gaming industry, led to the Department of Gaming and Racing developing the 2001 Act. It provides for the regulation, control and management of gaming machines in hotels and registered clubs. It also amends earlier Acts such as the Liquor Act 1982.

Gambling research

Buchanan recently spent 10 weeks in Las Vegas and Reno on research leave. She interviewed executives from the Super Casinos of the Las Vegas Strip, and attended two conferences. At the University of Nevada, she was able to work under Professor Bill Eadington, the foremost researcher in this area of gambling.

A previous scholar had come to Nevada from the University of Macau. The casino there is set to become as big as Las Vegas. Buchanan, who is shortly to submit her thesis, is exploring possibilities for teaching in Macau.

For further information, contact June Buchanan at june.buchanan@efs.mq.edu.au Her supervisor, Professor John Croucher, can be contacted at john.croucher@mgsm.edu.au

The Department of Business website is at www.bus.mq.edu.au

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