Helen Breen

Indigenous Australian Gambling in North Queensland Helen Breen

As gambling has increasingly expanded worldwide, Indigenous people, like others, have taken up commercial gambling. Additionally, gambling is an integral part of some Indigenous cultures and in Australia card gambling is known as a traditional exchange and recreation activity. Very limited academic literature is available to explain Indigenous Australian commercial and card gambling motivations, behaviours and outcomes, in particular, risk and protective factors. Medical analyses of gambling are no longer adequate for population groups. This book explains gambling by Indigenous Australians in north Queensland using more recent models based on public health principles to analyse risk factors, those associated with a high probability of adverse gambling outcomes and protective factors, those that assist gamblers to make decisions that protect them from harmful outcomes. This analysis should be very helpful in revealing evidence-based information useful for Indigenous Australian health and wellbeing services, public health professionals and gambling help agencies for informing the development of culturally appropriate resources for assisting Indigenous people with their gambling.