Lived Experience Story: Honour mistakes through acceptance and growth – My gambling story

I am a young Aussie bloke who loves sport and competition – gambling was immediately attractive to me. 

First, I started betting small amounts on sports, at the casino, and at the races. Always with friends, always having a good time and not necessarily focusing on the gambling itself. I enjoyed the thrill and loved working out “strategies” to win. One night when I was in my late teens, I woke up in the middle of the night 

Raising Our Voices

Raising OUR Voices The Gambling Impact Society (GIS) has been delivering free lived experience/personal narrative based community education programs, across NSW since 2012. These programs have been funded by government grants at both federal and state level. More recently  (2021-22) we received had direct and dedicated funding from the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling (ORG)…

Position Statement: The Need for Meaningful Poker Machine Gambling Reform in NSW

Gambling harm is a co-created phenomenon. The institutional, structural, and technological arrangements, which make up this phenomenon, requires meaningful reform (Roberts, 2021). There is an urgent need for public health policy development led by our elected government, in consultation with those with lived experiences of gambling harms, and not led by vested commercial interests. To…

Media Release: People Experiencing Gambling Harms Call for Cashless Gambling Card

The Gambling Impact Society NSW (GIS), a consumer led health promotion charity, has released a position statement supporting the proposed cashless gambling card in NSW (refer www.gisnsw.org.au). Underpinning this statement is the research work of Dr. Kate Roberts (GIS Executive Officer), who recently completed her doctoral thesis based upon a collaborative research study undertaken with…

Lived Experience Story

I woke up on Christmas Eve 2017 and honestly wished I hadn’t. This was my ‘rock bottom’ and I’m here speaking to you today in the hopes I can prevent others from having to reach that point. My name is Enrique, I’m 47 years old and from the Illawarra. Today I’m going to tell you…