Sally Gainsbury – professor, gambling researcher
My name is Sally Gainsbury. I am a professor of psychology at the University of Sydney, director of Australia’s only university-affiliated gambling treatment and research clinic, and chief investigator of the Technology Addiction Team at the Brain and Mind Centre. I have spent more than 20 years studying how people gamble online, what drives risky behaviour, and how digital platforms can be designed to protect players rather than exploit them. That background shapes everything I write here on this site.
I did not come to casino reviewing through the usual route. I did not start by playing pokies and working backward to credibility. I started with peer-reviewed research – published, cited by regulators and policy makers across Australia and internationally – and then applied that expertise to the real products Australians are actually using. The result is a review approach grounded in clinical psychology, public health thinking, and two decades of direct engagement with the gambling industry, its regulators, and the people harmed by it.
Education and academic qualifications
My formal training was completed entirely in Australia. I hold a Bachelor of Psychology with Honours, a Doctorate of Clinical Psychology, and a PhD in Psychology – three separate degrees that together cover both the clinical and the research dimensions of my work. The clinical doctorate means I am a qualified practitioner, not only a theorist. The research PhD means my academic work meets the standards of peer review, not just professional opinion.
That combination is unusual in this field and it matters for the kind of writing I do here. I can look at a gambling platform’s responsible gambling tools and assess them not just against a checklist but against what the clinical and behavioural research actually shows works – and what does not. Most people reviewing casinos online do not have that foundation.
| Qualification | Institution |
|---|---|
| Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) | University of Sydney |
| Doctorate of Clinical Psychology | University of Sydney |
| PhD in Psychology | University of Sydney |
Current institutional roles
I hold several concurrent roles at the University of Sydney, each of which shapes a different dimension of my work. The professorship places me in the School of Psychology, where I teach, supervise postgraduate researchers, and contribute to the academic community’s understanding of gambling as a behavioural and public health issue. The directorship of the Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic means I oversee both clinical service delivery and a research programme – the two reinforce each other in ways that purely academic or purely clinical roles do not allow.
The chief investigator role within the Technology Addiction Team at the Brain and Mind Centre connects my gambling research to a broader programme of work on how digital technology shapes addictive behaviour. That framing – gambling as one instance of technology-enabled addiction risk – is increasingly important as online platforms become more sophisticated, more personalised, and more effective at sustaining engagement.
| Role | Institution |
|---|---|
| Professor, School of Psychology | University of Sydney |
| Director, Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic | University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre |
| Chief Investigator, Technology Addiction Team | Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney |
Awards and recognition
My research has been recognised through competitive fellowships, university prizes, and professional society awards over a period spanning more than a decade. These recognitions come from different parts of the system – national research funding bodies, my own university, state science organisations, and the peak psychological professional body – which reflects the breadth of the work rather than a single narrow specialisation.
The most recent and significant recognition was the Churchill Fellowship awarded in 2024 by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. That fellowship funded an international study programme across five countries to examine how technology-based approaches to gambling harm prevention are being implemented in different regulatory contexts. The findings from that project are directly relevant to any assessment of Australian-facing online gambling platforms in 2026.
| Award | Year |
|---|---|
| Churchill Fellow, Winston Churchill Memorial Trust | 2024 |
| NSW Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year | 2019 |
| University of Sydney Research Accelerator Fellowship | 2019-2020 |
| Vice Chancellor Award for Research Excellence (Early Career) | 2018 |
| Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award (DECRA) | Competitive award |
| SCU Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research | 2015 |
| Australian Psychological Society Early Career Researcher Award | 2014 |
Research focus and published work
My research sits at the intersection of clinical psychology, public health, and digital technology. Over the past two decades I have focused specifically on internet gambling – its unique risk profile, its accessibility, and the way platform design choices can either amplify or reduce harm for vulnerable users. The body of published work I have contributed to covers a wide range of topics within that space, from the psychology of continuous digital play to the marketing practices of Australian gambling operators on social media.
I have published research on the distinct harms associated with offshore and unlicensed gambling operators, the relationship between social casino games and real-money gambling, the role of stigma in preventing problem gamblers from seeking help, and the effectiveness of technology-based harm-minimisation interventions. Each of those areas connects directly to questions Australian players face when choosing where and how to gamble online.
My work has been cited in government inquiries, regulatory reviews, and policy submissions in Australia and internationally. I have provided expert testimony and written submissions to multiple Australian government reviews of internet gambling legislation, and I have served on advisory boards for regulators, community organisations, treatment providers, and the gambling industry itself. Being inside that ecosystem – rather than commenting on it from the outside – gives me a practical understanding of how gambling platforms work, what their commercial incentives are, and where the gaps between stated policy and actual practice tend to appear.
| Research area | Description |
|---|---|
| Internet gambling harm profiles | How online gambling differs from land-based in terms of risk and harm |
| Offshore and unlicensed operators | Legal, regulatory, and consumer protection gaps for Australian players |
| Digital harm-minimisation tools | Effectiveness of deposit limits, cooling-off periods, self-exclusion systems |
| Social media gambling marketing | How operators target and retain customers through digital channels |
| Technology addiction and behavioural patterns | How platform design sustains and escalates gambling behaviour |
| Social casino games | Relationship between free-play apps and real-money gambling uptake |
| Stigma and help-seeking | Why problem gamblers delay or avoid seeking support |
| Vulnerable population risk | Adolescents, people with co-occurring mental health conditions, and other at-risk groups |
The Churchill Fellowship and international study (2024-2026)
The Churchill Fellowship I was awarded in 2024 represented a significant shift in the scope of my work. The project title was “To advance our understanding of how technology-based strategies can prevent and treat gambling harms,” and it involved extended research visits to the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Canada, and Spain. Each of those countries has taken a different approach to regulating online gambling and implementing technology-driven harm-reduction tools – from the UK Gambling Commission’s account-based tracking systems to Dutch operator requirements for affordability checks.
What I brought back from that fellowship was not a single transferable model but a much clearer picture of the range of what is technically and politically possible. Some approaches that have been implemented in Europe are genuinely effective at identifying and supporting at-risk players. Others that are widely discussed in Australian policy circles have not performed as well in practice as their proponents suggest. That comparative perspective shapes how I evaluate any operator’s responsible gambling infrastructure in 2026.
Countries visited during the Churchill Fellowship
- United Kingdom and Northern Ireland
- France
- Netherlands
- Canada
- Spain
Public engagement and keynote speaking
One part of my role that does not always show up in an academic profile is the work I do communicating research findings to non-academic audiences. I am regularly invited to give keynote and plenary presentations to regulators, policy makers, industry representatives, community health organisations, and general audiences – in Australia and internationally. In 2026, I was invited to speak at the Regulating the Game conference in Sydney, which is one of the major international forums for gambling law and regulation.
That side of my work matters because research that stays inside academic journals does not change much. The practical impact of gambling research depends on whether regulators act on it, whether operators take it seriously, and whether the public understands what the evidence actually shows. I have put significant effort over my career into making sure findings reach the people who can use them – including, now, Australian players who want to make better-informed decisions about where they play.
I have also been active on social media as @DrSalGainsbury, where I share research findings, comment on industry developments, and engage with both professional and public audiences on gambling-related issues. That visibility is not self-promotion for its own sake – it is part of a deliberate effort to keep gambling harm on the public agenda and to challenge misinformation when it appears.
Working with stakeholders across the system
A feature of my career that distinguishes it from purely academic research is the breadth of stakeholders I work with directly. I do not operate only within the university. Over the past 20 years I have worked with policy makers and government regulators developing legislation and codes of practice, gambling operators implementing responsible gambling programmes, community organisations providing support to people affected by gambling harm, clinical treatment providers working with problem gamblers and their families, and consumer advocates representing the interests of players.
That breadth means I understand the system from multiple angles at once. I know what operators are required to do under their licence conditions and what they actually do in practice. I know what support is available to Australian players who develop problems and how easy or difficult it is to access. I know where the regulatory framework has genuine gaps and where it is more robust than its critics suggest. That knowledge is background to everything I write here.
| Stakeholder group | Nature of engagement |
|---|---|
| Government regulators and policy makers | Expert testimony, written submissions, advisory roles |
| Gambling operators | Research collaboration, responsible gambling programme review |
| Community organisations | Research partnerships, public education |
| Treatment providers | Clinical collaboration, training, programme evaluation |
| Academic community | Publications, peer review, postgraduate supervision |
| General public | Media commentary, social media, conference presentations |
Editorial independence
I want to be explicit about how I approach the work published on this page. I do not accept payment from casino operators in exchange for reviews. I do not allow affiliate relationships to influence the substance of what I write. My assessments are based on direct evaluation of platforms against criteria that reflect my professional expertise and research background, not on what an operator would prefer a reviewer to say.
This matters more than it might seem. The Australian online casino review landscape in 2026 is heavily commercialised. The majority of review sites operating in this space generate revenue through affiliate commissions paid by the casinos they cover. That creates a structural incentive to portray platforms positively regardless of their actual quality or safety. I am not immune to commercial considerations – this site exists within that ecosystem – but my professional reputation and the standards of my academic institution require that what I publish be something I could stand behind in a professional context. That is the standard I apply here.
