Decline in gambling - are people not screaming for help anymore?

A declining percentage of Australians are gambling according to the latest Roy Morgan data. For the 12 months to September 2010, 61% of Australians 18+ (an estimated 10.4 million) have gambled in the last three months, down from 64% in September 2009, and 72% in September 2003. Participation in most types of gambling has gradually declined over the last seven years.

What does this mean? That people have higher trust in their own abilities?

In my eyes, addicition to gambling - or speed diets, shopping, botox, horoscopes, tarot readings or similar ways of getting hope and results quickly - is a way of escaping a seemingly hopeless situation. Sure, I am a fortuneteller too (great way to fine tune intuition) but when people try to fix their inner confidence without having to work for it, they miss out. A lottery ticket can´t replace hard work.

A Chinese proverb goes: "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." We need the challenges in life, and if we try to avoid them, they will keep on hunting us until we deal with them...

So is a decline in gambling a result of the life coaching trend? Are people reading self help book and discovering the unlimited power within? Is gambling nowadays considered a loser activity, since people are enlightened? 

I am not sure and wish statistics and facts were also followed by some dig-deep research... They are so sterile as they are presented now. Could you give them flesh and blood? Do you know? I´d love your insights. 

Don´t forget to read psychologist Richard Wiseman´s Luck Factor, amazing book that proves that luck is self-created, nothing mysterious or random.