The rapid expansion and normalisation of online gambling and casino-style products is creating a new wave of harm that is already being felt across communities and frontline services. Health and social sector workers are increasingly encountering gambling-related distress alongside mental health challenges, family harm, financial strain, and suicide risk, yet many report limited training, tools, and system support to respond effectively. This presentation positions workforce development as a critical and urgent lever for gambling harm minimisation, particularly in the context of widening inequities.

Drawing on the development of the Addressing Inequalities: Respond to Gambling Harm project, this keynote explores how community voices and frontline primary care and social service workforces have consistently raised concerns about the scale, complexity, and invisibility of gambling harm, particularly for Asian, Māori, and Pacific communities. These concerns reflect a sector bracing for what many describe as a “tsunami” of harm driven by 24/7 digital access, aggressive marketing, and evolving gambling technologies that outpace current workforce capability and system design.

Led by Asian Family Services in partnership with Mapu Maia and PGF Services, the Addressing Inequalities: Respond to Gambling Harm project responds by embedding gambling harm capability within everyday frontline practice. The initiative focuses on long-term workforce development through an accredited e-learning programme and a centralised digital platform providing practical tools, culturally grounded resources, and clear pathways for identification, brief intervention, and referral. Designed through co-design with lived experience contributors, community stakeholders, and frontline practitioners, Equity moves beyond one-off training to advocate for sustainable, system-integrated solutions.

This presentation reflects on early insights from implementation, including shifts in workforce confidence, shared language, and cross-sector readiness, and argues for equity-informed workforce development as essential infrastructure in the face of accelerating gambling technologies. By reframing gambling harm as a structural public health issue rather than an individual failure, the keynote calls for investment in durable, culturally responsive workforce capability as a cornerstone of future gambling harm prevention and response.