Modelling gambling time and economic assignments to weekly trip behaviour to gambling venues

The study of gambling and its socio-economic structures should be an area of growing interest to a society-relevant geography. In Australia, electronic gaming machines (EGMs) have dominated recent gambling industry growth. As EGMs have diffused through the urban hierarchy, there is a growing recognition that EGM distribution often correlates with levels of socio-economic status. Marshall and Baker (2002) showed that a similar EGM socio-economic assignment model evolved in the capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, even though these cities have substantially different historical and legislative EGM environments. This paper looks at a related space-time model in the context of trip-making to gaming venues, relative to an Index of Economic Resources from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. A simulation of the model predicts different types of gambling behaviour. It also shows that venue hours can affect time-economic trip behaviour. The model is then applied to EGM gambling data gathered in an urban hierarchy on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia. The results define a gaussian-type low involvement 'recreational random' gambling for patrons, whereas for more involved gamblers (in terms of time spent gambling), there are discrete behavioural periods over the week for a wider economic cohort. This leads to the possibility of a spectrum of time-economic EGM gambling assignments for participating households in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.