International student gambling: the role of acculturation, gambling cognitions and social circumstances: summary report: a mixed-methods investigation of international student gambling

International students have become an important contributor to university numbers in Australia. In turn, it is important for universities and the wider community to ensure this group is adequately supported while they study in this country. In many respects, they are a highly vulnerable population. They can experience a range of stresses that can lead to negative emotions and feelings of isolation. International students have a potentially explosive combination of youth, newfound independence in a foreign country and an increased number of stressors associated with emotions, relationships, culture and academic studies. In addition, international students are likely to have a sudden increase in exposure to gambling opportunities when they reach Australia. Legal gambling in India and China, for example, are based on a destination model, such only a very few gambling venues exist and prospective patrons must go to some effort and pre-planning to travel to a venue. Indonesia and Pakistan are predominantly Muslim countries and have no legalised gambling. The exceptions of course are online gambling and other illegal gambling opportunities, but access to these is likely to be much more restricted, particularly for a young student. In contrast, accessibility to gambling in Australia is very high. High rates of gambling participation demonstrate the public acceptance of gambling as a legitimate form of entertainment in Australia. Thus, even if a student has not gambled in their home country, they may decide to experiment with gambling in Australia if their peers present it as an acceptable form of entertainment. The gaming industry also works hard to maximise the social accessibility of venues by providing a warm and welcoming atmosphere and a variety of fun, social activities. Different types of venues and games will be attractive to different sections of the community, with the atmosphere of a casino, for example, designed to be particularly aattractive to the Asian market. Only a small body of research has investigated gambling within the Australian international student community, still less has been subject to peer review. What little exists suggests that gambling may be fairly infrequent within the international student population, but that some international students who did not gamble at home will take it up when they arrive in Australia. Exposure and access to gambling may therefore be influential in at least the uptake of gambling. The combined findings further suggest that significant proportions of international students who do gamble may be at risk of gambling problems, possibly at greater rates than domestic students. The relationships between gambling problems among international students and potential predictors such as irrational cognitions, stressors or negative affect remain unclear as the findings were inconsistent across studies. The full technical report is available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/204166