Gambling is an activity involving the placement of something of value, typically money, on an event with an element of chance and a potential to win a larger prize. It can take many forms, such as lottery tickets, dice, cards, bingo, slot machines, horse racing, animal races, sports events, and more. It is a common source of entertainment and recreation in our society. Although the vast majority of gamblers play for fun, gambling can also lead to serious problems. For some, it becomes a habit that can lead to pathological gambling, which has been associated with depression and anxiety. In some cases, it can even lead to suicide. While there are no FDA-approved medications for gambling disorder, behavioral therapy can help to break the cycle and return individuals to their pre-gambling functioning.
The negative impact of gambling can be felt at the personal, interpersonal, and community/society levels. At the personal level, it can cause harm to the gambler and their significant others, such as financial distress, petty theft, illicit lending, and escalating debt. Interpersonal harms can also include relationship difficulties, a decrease in quality of life, and deteriorating health. In some instances, it can result in family violence. At the community/societal level, the harms can be more direct and observable to others, such as increased crime, reduced economic growth, decreased tourism, and higher costs for public services, such as child protection and mental healthcare.
Problem gambling can also have long-term effects on an individual, causing a change in their life course and even passing between generations. These long-term effects can include changes in work, education, and marriage, as well as an increase in risky behavior such as drug and alcohol abuse and other forms of addiction. In addition, people who struggle with gambling can become depressed and anxious, and may start hiding evidence of their gambling to conceal the problem.
While most studies of gambling impacts have analyzed the financial, labor, and health and well-being consequences, few have taken into account social impacts. This is due to the fact that they are more difficult to quantify in monetary terms. However, there are various methodologies for measuring intangible harms and benefits that can be used to estimate social impacts of gambling. These methods include using quality of life weights, known as disability weights, which are commonly used in healthcare research and can be applied to gambling. They can provide a common methodology for assessing the impacts of gambling on society, as suggested by Walker and Williams [32]. This will allow the identification of unmeasured gambling impacts at the personal, interpersonal, and societal levels. It will also help to identify the need for new policies and interventions to address these impacts.
