First, however, the nature of financial counselling services is explained. A description of the questionnaire and schedule used to elicit this information follows. Valuable insight into the extent and nature of women presenting with gambling- related financial problems could be gained from these statistics. About Financial Counsellors Financial counsellors are primarily located within community agencies. Some are collocated with BreakEven problem gambling services.
Financial counsellors offer a range of direct services to clients seeking assistance.
Financial counsellors are primarily funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services or, in fewer cases, by the Commonwealth government. Eighteen agencies providing financial counselling services receive monies from the Community Support Fund to provide specialised support to clients with gambling- related financial problems. This program was being evaluated at the time of writing. For each client presenting as a gambler, the financial counsellor was requested to complete a questionnaire. Eighteen agencies returned records of the total number of clients presenting and questionnaires about a total of twenty-seven women who had presented as gamblers.