Roy Morgan Update October 28, 2025: Problem Gamblers, Consumer Confidence and Mortgage Stress

In this week's Market Research Update, we present the latest data on Problem Gamblers, Consumer Confidence and Mortgage Stress.

Welcome to the Roy Morgan Weekly update.

First new Roy Morgan research on gambling.

An estimated 622,000 Australian adults have serious gambling problems – that’s 2.9% of the Australian adult population - and the majority are aged under 35.

8.6% of Australian adults say they have bet more than they could really afford to lose;

8.0%  have felt guilty about the way they gamble or what happens when they gamble;

7.9%  go back on another day to try to win back the money they lost;

6.9% need to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling of excitement;

5.9% feel they might have a problem with gambling;

4.9% say gambling has caused them health problems, including stress or anxiety;

The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), brings together the responses to these questions and identifies: problem gamblers, moderate and low risk gamblers.

In total, nearly 3.5 million Australians (16.2%) are either problem gamblers or at-risk gamblers.

Looking over time shows the rate, and number, of problem gamblers has grown in each of the last two years.

The 622,000 ‘problem gamblers’ identified this year, is up a significant 111,000 from a year ago, and up 230,000 from two years ago.

Analysis by age shows Australians aged under 50 are more than twice as likely to be considered ‘problem gamblers’ than those aged 50+, and Australians aged under 35 are more than three times as likely as those aged 50+.

In fact, 316,000 problem gamblers are aged under 35 compared to 306,000 aged 35+.

And now consumer confidence, ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence increased 1.8 points to 85.8.

The driver of the increase was more confidence about personal financial situations looking forward and compared to a year ago.

In further good news, ANZ-Roy Morgan Inflation Expectations were virtually unchanged at 4.8%.

So, Australians are expecting annual inflation of 4.8% each year over the next two years.

We reported recently that Mortgage stress was easing overall. But clearly not for everyone.

Roy Morgan data scientists have identified that a majority  52.3% of owner-occupier mortgage holders who live alone or as single parents are ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress and 36.0% are ‘Extremely at Risk’

Importantly, this research reveals far more women than men in these circumstances are impacted.

in the year to June 2025 An estimated 205,000 ‘single female’ mortgage holders were ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress compared to 108,000 ‘single male’ mortgage holders.

These are important considerations the Reserve Bank needs to take into account when deciding on whether to cut interest rates again next week and in future months.

To understand more about this phenomenon see the full release on our website.