Professor Sally Gainsbury

Professor, School of Psychology, University of Sydney; Director, Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic

Professor Sally Gainsbury is an internationally recognised researcher specialising in gambling harms, digital behavioural risk, and technology-enabled prevention. She is Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney and Director of the Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic (GTRC), Australia’s only university-based specialist gambling treatment and research service.

Her research examines how gambling environments, platform design, and technologies interact with individual and systemic factors to influence behaviour, decision-making, and harm. She leads an integrated multidisciplinary program of work that combines behavioural science, real-world data, clinical insight, and policy evaluation to design and rigorously test interventions that reduce gambling harms and strengthen informed choice.

Professor Gainsbury has published over 140 peer-reviewed journal articles, authored two scholarly books, secured more than $6 million in competitive research funding, and delivered keynote and plenary presentations across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australasia. Her work has informed national consumer protection frameworks, regulatory reform, and digital harm-minimisation strategies in multiple jurisdictions.

Her current research extends established work in gambling to examine how emerging digital technologies shape risk, financial decision-making, and behavioural vulnerability, with a focus on scalable, evidence-based interventions.