Table 2.

Gambling consumption indices^a

Gambling frequencyb, c	Typical wording was: ‘In the last 12 months, how many times per week, per month or per year have you played/bet on [gambling activity]?’ for different modalities (e.g. venue, telephone, racetrack, off-course venue, internet on mobile device, internet using desktop computer) of each gambling activity. Annual gambling frequency was calculated by standardising each response to an estimated yearly frequency then summing these yearly frequencies across gambling activities.
Gambling expenditureb, c/session expenditurec	Typical wording was: ‘In the past 12 months, approximately how much money, on average, did you spend during each session of [gambling activity]?’ for each specific gambling activity. Total annual gambling expenditure was calculated by multiplying gambling frequency with session expenditure estimates for each activity then summing these yearly gambling expenditures across all gambling activities. Gambling expenditure was assessed only in terms of amount of money lost.
Gambling expenditure as a proportion of gross annual personal incomeb, c	Gross annual personal income was assessed: ‘Could you please tell me your approximate annual personal income before tax?’ In contrast to previous Tasmanian SEIS surveys, categories were refined to $10,000 increments for the purposes of these analyses (from less than $10,000 to $150,000 or more). To derive expenditure as a proportion of income, we used the mid-point of each category's range to represent the respective income category (e.g. $10,000 to $19,999 became $15,000). For the final income category (e.g. $150,000 or more) in which no mid-point exists, the same $5,000 interval that was applied (i.e. $155,000). Total annual gambling expenditure was then divided by the mid-point income value to derive gambling expenditure as a proportion of income. A small number (n = 4) of estimates exceeding 100% were removed from the dataset.
Number of types of gambling activitiesb	The number of types of gambling activities was based on participation across each gambling activity, with the exception of informal private games due to low participation. Typical wording was: ‘I am going to start by reading a list of popular gambling activities and find out if you have played them for money in the previous 12 months. In the last 12 months, have you…?’
Gambling durationb, c/session durationc	Typical wording was: “In the past 12 months, how much time on average did you spend playing/betting on [gambling activity] during each visit/session/transaction of [gambling activity]”. Responses were recorded in minutes. Total annual gambling duration was calculated by multiplying gambling frequency with session duration estimates for each gambling activity then summing these yearly gambling durations across all gambling activities.

^aUnless otherwise indicated all gambling indices were based on estimates from nine gambling activities: EGMs, horse or greyhound racing, instant scratch tickets, lotteries, keno, casino table games, bingo, sports or other event betting, and informal private games.

^bGambling consumption index for overall low-risk gambling limits.

^cGambling consumption index for activity-specific limits.