Nerilee Hing

Professor Nerilee Hing — My Story, My Career, and Why I Study Gambling Harm in Australia (First-Person)

My name is Nerilee Hing. I’m an Australian academic and researcher, and for much of my professional life I’ve focused on one question that keeps getting more urgent as gambling products evolve:

How do we reduce gambling-related harm in ways that actually work in the real world?

I’ve spent years examining gambling not only as a personal behaviour, but as a system—shaped by access, technology, product design, marketing, venue environments, and broader social and economic pressures. If you only look at “individual responsibility,” you can miss the bigger forces that influence risk and harm. My work has been about bringing those forces into clearer view—so prevention and policy can be based on evidence rather than assumptions.

1) Where I started: education and early direction

My academic journey began with formal training that gave me a strong foundation in applied research and real-world industries. Over time I moved deeper into public health–aligned questions about gambling—how it affects people, families, and communities, and what we can do to prevent harm without relying on stigma or moral judgement.

Even early on, I was interested in how consumer environments shape behaviour. That curiosity eventually became central to my gambling research: gambling is rarely just a “personal choice” isolated from context. It’s often the predictable outcome of exposure, availability, and reinforcement, especially when products are engineered to maximise time-on-device or spending intensity.

2) Southern Cross University: building a long-term research platform

A major phase of my career was based at Southern Cross University (SCU). This was a formative chapter—one in which I developed research programs, taught in related disciplines, and worked closely with colleagues and stakeholders who were seeking better answers to complex gambling questions.

Founding the Centre for Gambling Education and Research

One of the milestones I’m most proud of is serving as Founding Director of the Centre for Gambling Education and Research (SCU) for many years. Building a centre isn’t simply an administrative task. It means:

• creating research infrastructure that lasts beyond individual projects,
• developing partnerships that allow meaningful fieldwork,
• supporting and mentoring students and emerging researchers,
• translating academic work into language policymakers can use,
• maintaining independence and integrity in a contested space.

That independence matters. Gambling research often sits near commercial interests and political debate. I’ve always believed the public deserves evidence they can trust—especially when policy decisions affect harm at a population level.

3) CQUniversity and the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory: my current work

In more recent years, I’ve worked at CQUniversity as a Research Professor (Gambling Studies) within the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory (EGRL). This environment supports the kind of multidisciplinary research gambling harm requires: behavioural science, public health, statistical analysis, consumer policy, and social impact assessment.

My research interests have included (among others):

• online gambling and sports wagering
• gambling marketing and inducements
• youth exposure and early risk pathways
• risk and harm among vulnerable groups
• women’s gambling and gendered harm profiles
• stigma, help-seeking, and barriers to support
• links between gambling harm and broader social harms

In practice, that means I don’t just ask “who gambles?” I ask:

• What environments increase risk?
• What policies reduce harm?
• What role does marketing play—especially in online spaces?
• How can harm-minimisation tools be designed to actually help?

4) What I’ve tried to change in the conversation

When gambling harm is discussed publicly, the narrative can become simplistic—either “gambling is harmless entertainment” or “gambling is a moral failure.” Neither extreme helps people.

I’ve tried to push for a more honest and workable framing:

• gambling harm exists on a continuum,
• harm can affect families, relationships, and community wellbeing, not only the person gambling,
• product and market features matter—fast betting cycles, constant access, personalised marketing, and inducements can amplify risk,
• prevention should not rely on shame; it should rely on evidence-based design and regulation.

5) The themes that keep returning in my research

A) Marketing, promotions, and inducements

Marketing is not simply “information.” It can shape the timing, frequency, and intensity of gambling—especially when promotions are designed to trigger impulsive decisions. I’ve been interested in what advertising does at the behavioural level and what consumer protections are needed.

B) Online gambling and the speed of risk

Digital platforms change gambling fundamentally: you can bet instantly, repeatedly, privately, and at any time. That can create high-risk conditions for some users, especially when combined with targeted advertising.

C) Youth exposure and normalisation

If young people grow up seeing gambling constantly attached to sport and entertainment, it can normalise the behaviour long before a person makes their first bet. That normalisation is a major public health concern.

D) Harm beyond the individual

One of the most important points I’ve tried to keep visible is that gambling-related harm can show up as:

• financial stress
• conflict, isolation, relationship breakdown
• mental distress and reduced wellbeing
• impacts on children and family stability
• community-level costs and service burdens

E) Policy engagement without losing scientific integrity

I’ve also worked in spaces where research meets policy. That’s challenging because policy is often pressured by competing interests. My approach has been: be rigorous, transparent, and careful with claims—and keep returning to measurable outcomes.

6) My selected works (nofollow links)

Below is a curated selection of research outputs that represent key directions in my work.

7) Interactive tables: my workplaces and roles

Below are interactive HTML tables (search + click-to-sort). They’re designed for a dark site theme and require no external libraries.

Interactive Table A — Academic workplaces

8) Closing reflection (in my voice)

When I look back on this work, the part that matters most to me is not the volume of publications or the number of projects. It’s whether the research helps create:

• clearer consumer protections,
• less exposure for young people,
• fewer harms that ripple into families and communities,
• better pathways to support that don’t rely on shame.

Gambling harm is preventable—not perfectly, and not overnight, but meaningfully—when we treat it as a public health issue and design policies around real evidence. That’s the direction I’ve tried to keep my work moving toward.