Australians have stolen more than $100 million over the past five years to feed gambling habits, according to a new study whose author thinks the scale of theft he uncovered is just the tip of an iceberg.
Warfield & Associates accountant Brett Warfield identified 265 criminal convictions involving 267 offenders from 2011 to July this year in which money was stolen and either mostly gambled or used to pay a gambling debt.
The report identified $100 million worth of theft motivated by gambling. Credit: Josh Robenstone
The amount stolen totalled $104,143,790, averaging almost $400,000 per offender, who ranged in age from 18 to 78.
The largest individual fraud was $7.8 million and more than $1 million was stolen in 26 cases, 20 of which involved workers stealing from their employers.
"It's just an all-pervading need to gamble," Mr Warfield said.
"All they see are the lights and sounds and the buzz of whatever it is they're doing or playing.
"Overwhelming they're just good people who have got an addiction."
Mr Warfield said the research was limited by access to court judgments and the fact not all crimes motivated by gambling problems were reported as such, meaning the actual amount stolen to fund problem gambling would be much higher than the $100 million he identified.
Bernie Durkin, general manager at EACH Social and Community Health, which provides advice to problem gamblers, said addicts often thought they were "one big win" away from solving their financial problems.
"They often try to problem-solve it themselves, and they don't make very good choices, so it might be that they tend to steal, to pawn various items that belong to the family, to maybe defraud their employer," Mr Durkin said.
The stigma attached to problem gambling, especially poker machines, meant addicts were more likely to resort to desperate measures rather than seek help and services that were available, he said. "If they came earlier, they wouldn't go down the track that the [report] has uncovered."
The report found poker machines were overwhelmingly the most common form of gambling identified behind the crimes, and women were the culprits in 70 per cent of those cases.
The most common type of victim identified in the report was employers, accounting for just over half of all offences, followed by government agencies such as Medicare, friends, customers, not-for-profit groups and family members.
The most common form of theft involved employers processing fraudulent transfers through an employers' payment system, followed by stealing cash, and issuing of false invoices.
Australian gamblers lost an average of $1500 in 2009, a productivity report found, making us among the world's biggest losers among developed nations.