Gambling poses a huge global threat to public health, experts warn
Gambling is a growing global public health threat, with its rapid spread through mobile phones and the internet harming many more people than previously thought, a report has warned.
Much stronger global regulatory controls are urgently needed to curb the impact of commercial gambling on global health and well-being, a group of leading experts on gambling, public health, global health and regulation have concluded.
Approximately 450 million people have at least one behavioral symptom or have experienced harmful personal, social or health consequences of gambling. the 45-page report of the Lancet public health committee on gambling found.
Of those, at least 80 million people suffer from gambling disorder, a mental illness characterized by a pattern of repetitive and persistent gambling, despite the negative consequences on a person’s life. The estimates of the numbers who experience significant damage to their health as a result of gambling are likely conservative, the experts said.
Incredibly sophisticated marketing and increasingly easy access to the Internet and mobile phones allow the gambling industry to reach more people than ever before. They also included adolescents and younger children who were routinely exposed to advertising for gambling products in ways unprecedented before the digital revolution, the report found.
Prof. Heather Wardle, the co-chair of the committee, said the enormous global threat to public health is rooted in the rapidly changing nature of gambling.
“Most people think of a traditional casino in Las Vegas or buying a lottery ticket when they think of gambling. They don’t think about big tech companies deploying a variety of techniques to get more people to interact more often with a product that can pose significant health risks, but this is the reality of gambling today,” she said.
“Anyone with a cell phone now has 24-hour access to what is essentially a casino. Highly sophisticated marketing and technology make it easier to start and harder to stop gambling, and many products now use design mechanisms to encourage repeat and longer engagement.”
Wardle, a specialist in gambling research, policy and practice from the University of Glasgow, added: “The global growth trajectory of this industry is phenomenal; Collectively we need to wake up and take action. If we delay this, gambling and gambling harm will become even more widely entrenched as a global phenomenon and much more difficult to tackle.”
A systematic review and meta-analysis conducted for the committee estimated that gambling disorders affected 15.8% of adults and 26.4% of adolescents who used online casino or gambling products, and 8.9% of adults and 16.3 % of adolescents who gambled using sports betting products.
Online casino and online sports betting are two of the fastest growing areas for commercial gambling worldwide, the report found.
Commercial gambling is clearly associated with financial losses and the risk of financial ruin, but it is also associated with physical and mental health problems, the breakdown of relationships and families, increased risk of suicide and domestic violence, increased crime against property and people, and loss of employment, the experts concluded.
The committee report noted that this impact was not spread evenly across the population, and that specific groups were at “increased risk” of harm, including adolescents and younger children who were routinely exposed to advertising for gambling products. Furthermore, gambling is often embedded in the architecture of video games.
Dr. Kristiana Siste, one of the report’s experts, said: “We must take action to protect children from the harms of gambling. We know that early exposure to gambling increases the risk of developing gambling disorders later in life, and that children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the lure of easy money and the game-like designs of online gambling.
The report also warned how a complex ecosystem allowed the multi-billion dollar gambling industry to promote its products and protect its interests.
This includes innovative digital marketing approaches rooted in ‘deep surveillance’ to target consumers online, as well as widespread sports and broadcast media sponsorship.
The experts also expressed concern about how the gambling industry was undermining legitimate science on the impact of gambling, reframing discussions about its harmful effects to promote individual responsibility and consumer freedom, and influencing the political processes surrounding regulation .
Prof Malcolm Sparrow, one of the experts behind the report, said the findings pointed to the need for greater regulation of gambling.
“While the industry continues to promote gambling as harmless entertainment, countries and communities are experiencing rapidly increasing threats from gambling harm.
“The committee urges policymakers to treat gambling as a public health problem, just as we treat other addictive and unhealthy goods such as alcohol and tobacco.”