Children’s Gamble-Play Cultures is a Australian Research Council Discovery project led by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Melbourne universities RMIT and Swinburne. Across 3 years (2026-2028), we are investigating how children and teens (5-17) understand, relate to and engage with gamble-play mobile content.

Our project looks at mobile games with mechanisms like:

• In-game purchases

• Loot boxes

• Time-savers

• Random character/item draws (gacha)

• Casino-style features

We want to understand children’s behaviours, habits, perspectives, and understandings of these games and game mechanics.

This is a child-centred research project that privileges children’s rights and agency.

Our methods involve surveys, lab-based observations, home ethnographies and creative workshops. If you or your family would like to get involved, please get in touch.