Dr Dave Clarke from the School of Psychology at New Zealand's Massey University is contributing to a multidisciplinary research team looking at gambling in New Zealand.
The team is investigating what causes people to become gamblers and what causes the shift from social or recreational gambling to problem gambling.
The research team is headed by Dr Samson Tse at the Centre for Gambling Studies, School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. It includes investigators from the Auckland University of Technology, along with Maori, Pacific Island and Asian researchers. The team has successfully tendered for a contract to develop a methodology to examine why people in New Zealand gamble and progress from moderate levels to more problematic gambling. The research project is funded by the Problem Gambling Committee and administered by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Dr Clarke says whilst there is much international epidemiological research on the prevalence of problem gambling, there is a paucity of research conducted within the unique cultural context of New Zealand. Worldwide, little is known about the determinants that influence the shift from recreational or social gambling to problem gambling.
The present research consists of four main phases: