Geographical Accessibility to Gambling Venues and Suicide

Lachlan Cameron, Nicole Black, David Johnston, Jane Pirkis, Jemimah Ride and Rita Santos

No 2026-10, Working Papers from Centre for Health Economics, Monash University

Abstract: Worldwide, gambling can cause economic and health-related harm to individuals and communities. Policy responses to reduce these harms require evidence on the effects of features of the gambling environment. This study explores whether geographical accessibility to gambling venues impacts suicides. We construct a longitudinal spatial data set with information on the number of gambling venues and suicides in Australian neighbourhoods from 2001 to 2018, and exploit changes in accessibility induced by venue openings and closures. The closure of a gambling venue is estimated to decrease the number of suicides per year in that area by 9.8%. Effects of gambling venues in neighbouring areas are small and statistically insignificant, indicating that the relationship between venue access and suicide is concentrated close to the venue location.

Keywords: Gambling; suicide; gambling venues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 L83 L88 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08-03
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