Australia's gambling epidemic and energy poverty

Energy poverty is a growing concern across many countries due to rising energy costs. Energy affordability is essential for households to be able to pay their bills and adequately heat their homes. Here we consider the relationship between energy poverty and gambling. Problem gambling is an increasing societal issue in many countries. Gambling is addictive for many players and at its extreme excessive gambling consumption can lead to multiple economic and social harms. One domain of huge importance is the financial hardship that gambling can create. We utilise the Household, Income and Laboure Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) data to investigate if problem gambling is a driver of energy poverty. We employ a range of energy poverty measures and gambling behaviour proxies. Our findings show subjective measures of energy poverty are positively associated with gambling expenditure. This finding captures the negative impacts of excessive gambling on an individual's ability to pay their energy bills and heat their homes. •This paper finds that gambling is a driver of energy poverty.•Problem gambling measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) is positively related subjective energy poverty.•Problem gambling measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) is not related to objective energy poverty.•The tipping point where energy poverty occurs is when gamblers are categorised as being at risk of problem gambling.•Our analysis shows the effect of gambling on subjective energy poverty is half the size of the income effect.