Clients' perspectives of, and experiences with, selected Australian problem gambling services

Abstract

Although there continues to be interest in documenting the evidence base for problem gambling interventions, little has been published on service users' perspectives on services provided to them. To gain a greater understanding of this issue, group interviews were held with present and past users of two services in Victoria, Australia-the government-funded state-wide Gambler's Help program and the privately funded self-help Free Yourself Program. Service users articulated a range of views about factors leading to the propensity to gamble, causes of problem gambling, the action that they would take to protect problem gamblers, the effectiveness of self-exclusion from venues, the features of a good problem gambling counselling service, unhelpful service characteristics, and the issue of abstinence or control as desired endpoints of intervention.