What does a public health approach offer gambling policy? Lessons from Australia's casino and gambling inquiries and Royal Commissions.

In 2021, 2022, and again in 2024, Royal Commissions, and in NSW and Qld, inquiries, were scathing of the behaviour and performance of Crown Resorts Ltd and The Star Entertainment group. Subsidiaries of these companies operate casinos in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia, and Crown have recently opened a new casino in NSW. In NSW, a 2023 Crime Commission inquiry found evidence of widespread money laundering activity in club and pub electronic gambling machine venues. Further, a 2023 Australian parliamentary inquiry into online wagering unanimously recommended sweeping reforms to the online wagering sector, including prohibition of gambling advertising. Although much of the focus of the casino and EGM venue inquiries was devoted to criminal activity, including money laundering, the Vic and WA Royal Commissions and the parliamentary inquiry were scathing of the approach taken by the casinos to 'responsible gambling'. Reports of these inquiries made a number of recommendations about how to improve the harm prevention and harm minimization efforts of casino and online wagering operators. Many of these were drawn from public health approaches to gambling harm. This project will examine the relationship between emerging public health approaches to gambling harm, and the recommendations made by these Royal Commissions and inquiries. The project's research question will be 'What contemporary Public Health policy and practice is relevant to casino and gambling reform generally? What does a comprehensive Public Health approach to casino and gambling reform entail?'.