The Context of Gambling Harms: Impacts and Influences (original) (raw)
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Public health effects of gambling – debate on a conceptual model
BMC Public Health
Background: Gambling for money is a popular leisure time activity in most countries, which has major social and economic impacts not only affecting the gambler, but his/her significant others, and the society. Gambling impact studies can help researchers and policymakers compare the health and social costs and benefits of different gambling policies and can be used when considering which gambling policies will reduce or increase costs or benefits the most. In a public health approach, the impacts of gambling, negative and positive, are assessed across the entire severity spectrum of the activity. Although some studies have created basic principles for conducting impact studies, a theoretical model is currently lacking. The aim of this debate is to review complementing and contrasting views on the effects of gambling to create a conceptual model, where a public health perspective is applied. Main text: The effects of gambling can be structuralized using a conceptual model, where impacts are divided into negative and positive; costs and benefits. Costs and benefits are categorized into three classes: financial, labor and health, and well-being. These classes manifest in personal, interpersonal, and societal levels. Individual impacts cause effects on a personal level to gamblers themselves. External impacts influence the interpersonal and society/ community levels and concern other people. The temporal level refers to the development, severity and scope of the gambling impact. These include general impacts, impacts of problem gambling and long-term impacts of gambling. Conclusions: The conceptual model offers a base on which to start building common methodology for assessing the impact of gambling on the society. While measuring monetary impacts is not always straightforward, the main issue is how to measure the social impacts, which are typically ignored in calculations, as are personal and interpersonal impacts. The reviewed empirical work largely concentrated on the costs of gambling, especially costs on the community level. The Model can be used to identify areas where research is scarce. Filling the gaps in knowledge is essential in forming a balanced evidence base on the impacts of gambling. Ideally, this evidence could be the starting point in formulating public policies on gambling.
Gambling and public health: we need policy action to prevent harm
BMJ
Current approaches targeting affected individuals substantially underestimate the harms of gambling Gambling places a major burden of harm on individuals, communities, and society Harms from gambling are generated through a range of political, legislative, commercial and interpersonal actions Public health approaches to reduce harms related to gambling should encompass a range of population based approaches supported by regulation, legislation. and funding
A population-level metric for gambling-related harm
Prior estimates of population level impact of gambling has relied on economic costings. Recent work has derived disability weights for the Problem Gambling Severity Index, which measure per-person impact of gambling on quality of life on a scale of zero to one (Browne et al. 2016, in press). This provided scope for the present study to calculate the ‘burden of gambling harm’; which captures the aggregate impact of harms arising from gambling on quality of life in a population. Gambling-related harm was associated with 101,675 years of life lost in Victoria, Australia: approximately two-thirds that of alcohol use and dependence, and major depressive disorder. Problem gamblers suffer more individually (disability weight = .44) compared to those in moderate (.29) and low (.13) risk categories. Nevertheless, moderate and low risk gamblers account for 85% of population-level harm, due to greater prevalence of these groups. Overall, the scale of gambling-related harm is large relative to other significant health issues, with milder yet non-negligible harm accruing to a relatively broad segment of the gambling population. We suggest that the tendency to conflate the (typically low) prevalence of problem gambling with total gambling impact is misleading, and argue for a broader population health based measure.
2017
Gambling has a long pedigree, going back millennia and pervading many cultures and societies. Since the mid-1980s there has been unprecedented growth in commercial gambling and annual global gambling losses were estimated to total $400 billion in 2016 (Bogart, 2011; The data team, 2017). This growth is driven by increasing acceptance of legal gambling, the intersection of gambling and financial technologies, impacts of internet and mobile devices, the spread of gambling to traditionally non-gambling settings and other globalisation forces (Abbott & Volberg, 1999). The interest of governments in increasing revenue played a significant part (Hodgins & Petry, 2016). Although gambling expenditure has levelled off or declined in some jurisdictions, there is strong growth in others, including some of the world’s largest nations. There is also strong growth, globally, in on-line gambling. While now widespread, some societies previously had limited experience of gambling and it remains lega...
Research on the Social Impacts of Gambling
This study was undertaken through a review of the British and international research evidence on the social impacts of gambling and casinos. It also analysed fresh data from the 1999 Prevalence Survey of gambling in Great Britain to investigate patterns of gambling behaviour in Scotland.
Objectives: To examine whether the " prevention paradox " applies to British individuals in relation to gambling-related harm. Methods: Data were derived from 7,756 individuals participating in the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2010, a comprehensive interview-based survey conducted in Great Britain between November 2009 and May 2010. Gambling-related harm was assessed using an adapted version of the DSM-IV Pathological Gambling criteria. The previous year's prevalence of problem gamblers was examined using the Problem Gambling Severity Index. Gambling involvement was measured by gambling frequency and gambling participation (gambling volume as expressed by time and money spent gambling). Results: The prevalence rates for past-year gambling harms were dependence harm (16.4%), social harm (2.2%), and chasing losses (7.9%). Gambling-related harms were distributed across low-to moderate-risk gamblers (and not limited to just problem gamblers) and were reported by the majority of gamblers who were non-high time and spend regular gamblers than high time and spend regular gamblers. Conclusions: The prevention paradox is a promising way of examining gambling-related harm. This suggests that prevention of gambling might need to consider the population approach to minimizing gambling harm.
Gambling as social practice: a complementary approach for reducing harm?
Harm Reduction Journal
Background Gambling is now a well-recognised public health issue and forms the focus of extensive harm reduction initiatives. Recent developments in policy, practice and technology, such relaxation of regulations, the increasing influence of global gambling corporations, and the development of devices such as mobile phone apps and fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) mean that the landscape is a complex, dynamic, and fast moving one. Gambling is now practiced using new technologies, in various spaces and places, and features in a range of social surroundings. Therefore, research is needed to inform appropriate gambling harm reduction strategies that can respond to this complex domain. Yet, research and policy approaches to the reduction of gambling harm are predominantly framed through psychological and economic models of individual behaviour, addiction, and ‘rational’ action. This is beginning to change, with a growing corpus of socio-cultural approaches to gambling research now em...
Gambling and health: uncomfortable bedfellows
The New Zealand medical journal, 2007
Gambling has been a leading growth industry for 20 years, particularly in countries such as New Zealand where electronic gaming machines (EGMs) and urban casinos were widely introduced. 1 Approximately NZ$2 billion was spent (lost) in New Zealand on major forms of gambling last year-$5.5 million per day. Like alcohol, gambling is Janus-faced. Among other things it deals entertainment, pleasure, companionship, distraction, and dreams with one hand. And it dispenses financial ruin and a trail of personal, family, and social devastation with the other.
For a small minority of people, gambling can cause poor financial and/or health outcomes. The manner in which problem gamblers experience their lives and themselves in relation to others may play a crucial role in the development and/or maintenance of their gambling. The aim of this study was to examine whether there are any differences between online problem gamblers and offline problem gamblers in their experience of the consequences of their gambling behaviour in relation to quality of life and wellbeing. The analysis of interview data from six online problem gamblers and nine offline problem gamblers revealed that the use of gambling to manage negative emotional states was evident across all participants irrespective of gambling medium, and that problem gamblers experience a high preoccupation with gambling leading to personal, social, and financial negative consequences. The study revealed very few differences between the two groups of problem gamblers. The health problems experienced by the problem gamblers included mental health problems, physical health problems, and emotional health problems. The study has clear implications for clinicians working with problem gamblers, as excessive gambling causes serious problems and in some cases, the gambling behaviour may be seen as a symptom of experiential dysfunction that must be addressed along with the problematic behaviour.