About Us

Who We Are

Mr Ashley Gordon

Ashley is a proud Aboriginal man from the western-NSW community of Brewarrina, a descendent of the Gamilaroi and Barkindji people.

After a successful career in rugby league with the Newcastle Knights, Ashley is actively involved in the Gambling Help sector with extensive experience working with more the 200 Aboriginal communities throughout Australia. Ashley has vast experience in community education, awareness, help seeking and the delivery of successful programs for Indigenous peoples and communities.

Addressing the impacts of gambling in Aboriginal communities is his passion highlighted by the appointment to the federal Ministerial Expert Advisory Group on Gambling and the Expert Advisory Group for the Australian Gambling Research centre. A gambling counsellor with 20 years’ experience and six years has a gambling researcher with the Centre for Gambling Education and Research at Southern Cross University at Lismore.  He currently joined the National Suicide Prevention Trial Evaluation Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sub-Committee.

He is the Executive Director of NSW Aboriginal Safe Gambling Services, where he manages the GambleAware Aboriginal service, which targets Aboriginal communities and GambleAware organisations across NSW each year. He is also the First Nations Advisor for the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. Ashley has a long-term objective to be involved in the ongoing development and implementation of Gambling related policies and programs that improve the well-being of Aboriginal people. Since the gambling question has been placed in the 715 Health Checks, Ashley been focusing on training to Aboriginal Health Workers.

Miss Bobbi Law

Bobbi a proud Worimi and Dunghutti woman from Nelson Bay, in the Port Stephens peninsular.

Bobbi found her passion for rugby league in 2019, in a short period of time she has been very successful being apart of teams such as NRL Indigenous Allstars, PM XIII and NRLW teams such as the Sydney Roosters, St George Illawarra Dragons and Newcastle Knights where she was apart of the premiership winning team in 2022.

Bobbi has been working with NSW Aboriginal Safe Gambling Services since 2020, where she has applied her desire to help Aboriginal people and communities across NSW. She has completed the Gambling Harm Minimisation course, SMART Recovery Training, studied First Peoples Health and is apart of the NRL’s Indigenous Players Advisory Group. However, Bobbi’s passion has always been to learn more about her Aboriginal culture and work with community, she wants to continue to meet new people and develop meaningful connections.

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Expert Advisory Group

Dr Helen Breen

Helen Breen is an Adjunct in the Faculty of Business, Law and Arts at Southern Cross University Australia. Her research includes business and public health focused research on minimizing gambling harm minimization, protecting consumers and promoting genuine social responsibility. Over 17 years Helen has investigated gambling impacts for specific groups such as Indigenous people, women, seniors, tourists, regular interactive gamblers and victims of family violence.

With colleagues, Helen’s work with Indigenous groups has included - community based participatory action research in northern and outback regions of QLD to reduce local gambling harms; examined gambling problems and risks for Indigenous groups using an innovative public health analysis with surveys and interviews conducted in NSW and QLD at special events; investigated Indigenous gambling in regional NSW using face-to-face interviews to evaluate gambling behaviour, associated risk and protective factors and identify potential interventions; conducted the first quantitative survey of Indigenous gambling, problem gambling, socio-demographic characteristics, behavioural patterns, gambling perceptions and attitudes, and help-seeking activities in far north QLD; engaged in workshops with Indigenous community leaders, Elders, staff at Indigenous services, PCYC, youth groups, family and social support groups, sporting clubs and neighbourhood centres in discussing gambling related harms and formulating community driven solutions; been invited to the advisory board of a project, a health promotion framework addressing gambling harm in NT Indigenous communities; and provided a research review for First Nations groups in Canada regarding their current gambling and potential research directions for the future.

Professor Nerilee Hing

Nerilee Hing is a Research Professor (Gambling Studies) at CQUniversity in Australia, working with a team of researchers in its Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory. Previously, she was Founding Director of Southern Cross University’s Centre for Gambling Education and Research. Nerilee has been conducting research into gambling for over 25 years. Her research aims to inform policies and practices to reduce gambling-related harm for individuals, families and communities, and to increase the safe provision and consumption of gambling. Her research focuses mainly on gambling behaviour, online gambling, wagering, gambling marketing, risk factors for gambling harm, measures to reduce gambling harm, gambling in vulnerable populations, and gambling problems, stigma and help-seeking. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts on gambling.

Dr Matthew Stevens

Matthew Stevens is a consultant public health researcher and statistician with over 20 years’ experience, and holds Honorary Research Fellow positions with Deakin University and Menzies School of Health Research. He has worked across a range of disciplines from environmental science to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. After moving to the Northern Territory (NT) in 2000, he began working for the Australia Bureau of Statistics in the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics before joining the Menzies School of Health Research in 2002 to work in the area of Indigenous housing and social determinants of health. Matt received his PhD in 2013 for research into gambling problems amongst the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. His research is mostly quantitative in nature and has a focus evaluating the effectiveness of social and health policies on health and wellbeing. He brings a focus to harm minimisation strategies associated with addictive behaviours. Matt has led a range of projects in the fields of gambling research (from large-scale population surveys to evaluating health promotion in reducing gambling harm in remote NT Aboriginal communities), and alcohol research (developing a framework to monitor harm associated with alcohol in remote NT Aboriginal communities, involving research with 8 communities conducting surveys with residents and semi-structured interviews with community leaders). Matt has conducted statistical analyses and authored reports and journal articles in the field of social determinants of health with a focus on gambling, indicators of alcohol harms, housing, social and emotional wellbeing, children’s dental health, tobacco control, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.

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Research Projects

Ashley Gordon, Prof. Nerilee Hing and Dr Helen Breen have collaborated on numerous research activities with Australian Aboriginal peoples and communities, where Ashley has had the following roles.

Indigenous gambling in the Yarrabah community, 2007-08

This project was funded by the Queensland Government and surveyed adults in the community about several aspects of gambling. The research processes gave explicit recognition and commitment to respecting Indigenous cultural values and principles. Ashley consistently engaged the Aboriginal community in many ways that promoted ownership of the research through consulting health and welfare groups, government departments, schools, pre-schools, aged care, rehabilitation services, men’s and women’s groups, sports teams, juvenile justice, police, hospital, religious groups and more. With Ashley’s guidance, a dedicated gambling consultative committee was set up and provided substantial input into survey design and administration through lengthy consultation. The survey gained a 72% response rate (over 800 responses) of the total adult population. Ashley’s initiatives to facilitate the research project included community activities such as BBQs, entertainment and art competitions which substantially raised community awareness about gambling, gambling harm and pathways for help. Follow-up activities increased community capacity to address gambling problems, including gambling training for local Aboriginal health services and for gambling liaison officers in the community. Ashley also trained and supervised 26 local research assistants. He also supported local non-Indigenous gambling help services to develop culturally appropriate guidelines and resources to assist local Aboriginal gamblers with their needs. 

Exploring Indigenous gambling, 2008-10

This second project was funded by Gambling Research Australia. It was conducted with Indigenous Australians in northern New South Wales to better understand gambling and its consequences for individuals, families and communities. Ashley led interviews with 169 Indigenous Australians across six Local Government Areas. Reflecting Ashley’s flexibility, interviews were conducted at participants’ workplaces, community centres, coffee shops and in homes, based on participants’ preferences. At the end of the project, Ashley presented the research results in each community to build the capacity of local groups and services to recognise harmful gambling behaviours to enhance public health awareness and harm reduction.

Gamblers at risk and their help-seeking behaviour, 2009-10

This national study, funded by Gambling Research Australia, analysed formal and informal gambling help seeking behaviour, to inform evidence-based policy and programs providing assistance for gamblers. Ashley conducted 54 interviews in Darwin and Cairns with Aboriginal people who gambled regularly, their family members, Aboriginal people receiving gambling help, and counsellors delivering gambling help services to Aboriginal people, including from Aboriginal-specific help services. Ashley liaised closely with gambling and Aboriginal health services and provided gambling counselling when requested.

Gambling problems, risks and consequences in Indigenous Australian communities, 2010-14

Our successful collaboration with Ashley led to an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant – to contribute to a better understanding of gambling by Aboriginal people. With support from Ashley working with Aboriginal peoples, services and organisations, we surveyed 1,259 Indigenous adults, recruited at Indigenous festivals, online and in several Indigenous communities. This research was pioneering as it was the largest survey specific to Indigenous gambling ever conducted across Australia and the first since 1996. Ashley made a significant effort to successfully engage with Aboriginal organisations and communities. He led consultative meetings with key individuals and groups, including Aboriginal Land Councils, community controlled Aboriginal health and employment services, Aboriginal tertiary education administrators, Aboriginal event organisers, government departments with Aboriginal portfolios, local Elders and local Indigenous community members. Issues relating to intellectual property and the project’s methodology were negotiated with the AHMRC of NSW. Ashley also led communications strategies to raise awareness about gambling harm, through media articles and a safe gambling stand at events. Ashley also recruited and trained dozens of local Indigenous research assistants to help administer the surveys. We provided feedback through the AHMRC of NSW. Ashley’s substantial input, his management skills and personal abilities were apparent to all involved in the project, as was his enthusiastic, genuine and professional approach to this work.

Addressing gambling harms in the Yarrabah Aboriginal community, 2017

Funded by CQUniversity, this project aimed to strengthen the capacity of the Yarrabah Aboriginal community to reduce gambling-related harm through a program of health promotion strategies that were identified, co-designed, delivered and evaluated in partnership with the Yarrabah community. Ashley held numerous consultative meetings with the Council, Elders and local Yarrabah health services, formed a project consultative committee, and held yarning groups with 86 community residents, including representatives from several community groups and organisations. In response to the issues raised in relation to gambling harm in the community and how they might be minimised, Ashley helped the community to co-design and implement numerous safe gambling initiatives. These included community education on safe gambling, collateral on safe gambling for ongoing community use, a screening tool for problem gambling introduced into health services in the community, schools based education to every class in Yarrabah High School, and strengthened links between community and Gambling Help Cairns.