More needs to be done to mitigate the impacts of gambling

This is saying something, because gambling ads have long become ubiquitous, so much so that gambling is now considered as normal as eating junk food and drinking alcohol.

That is to say that we know gambling is inherently problematic, but we mostly prefer to believe we're immune to its worst effects, and that moderation is key.

But we are increasingly paying the costs for the rise in problem gambling. A study published last week revealed that more than one in 10 Canberrans were affected by problem gambling in the past 12 months.

The 2019 ACT Gambling Survey, carried out by the Australian National University's Centre for Gambling Research is the first major study of Canberra gambling habits since 2014.

It found 60 per cent of ACT adults took part in some form of gambling, and that this number was going up.

This is due largely to the rise of online gambling, which has increased dramatically since the last survey conducted five years ago.

Centre head Marisa Paterson said while the broader public mostly saw gambling as having a negative impact, more people were placing bets.

"People see gambling as doing more harm than good, yet we're seeing people are highly engaged in it," she said.

And there's a significant link with marketing and advertising, much of which specifically targets men.

"Men have been targeted by marketing and advertising systematically over the past 10 years, and the survey has shown the detrimental impacts of that," Dr Paterson said.

The survey also shows that on average, a gambler in Canberra lost $699 over the course of year, through lottery tickets, scratchies, pokies, horse racing and sports gambling.

But money is only one aspect of the damage wrought on individuals and families through gambling.

When highlighting the social ills of gambling, we have a tendency to focus on the large amounts of money involved.

We hear stories about adults gambling away the family's savings, about young people becoming addicted from an early age, about spiralling debt that began with a trip to the pokies.

But the problems go far deeper, and start earlier, than the final dollar amount that has been lost.

Like many other forms of addiction, gambling inevitably involves shame and stigma. It can affect the most seemingly unlikely of individuals, from all kinds of backgrounds.

It can cause rifts in families, as well as depression and even suicide when it comes to individuals.

Clubs are often to blame, with their reliance on poker machines as a major source of revenue.

And while some clubs have made efforts to fund other positive initiatives, it is in many ways too late to negate the long-reaching effects of gambling.

Canberra has long led the way when it comes to tackling social problems that have become the norm over the years - smoking in public, limiting single-use plastic bags, regulating cannabis, measures to mitigate climate change.

There is more than enough evidence that something needs to shift when it comes to how gambling is perceived.

Reducing gambling, and all the problems it causes, should be high on our list of Canberra's progressive causes.