The first ever global gambling review has highlighted a ‘substantial’ lack of meaningful commitment from governments around the world to tackling the public health and wellbeing harms from gambling.

Led by University of Glasgow researchers, the ‘pioneering’ review has prompted calls for improved planning and national and global action on gambling as a public health issue.

Published in The Lancet Public Health journal, the paper reveals an ‘overwhelming focus’ on controlling individual consumers rather than improving controls and regulation of the gambling industry.

While gambling harms are increasingly recognised in legislation, researchers say governments are ‘still not doing enough’. This study finds an apparent lack of willingness among the world’s policymakers to meaningfully address gambling harms.

One of the lead researchers on this work, Dr Daria Ukhova, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Social and Political Sciences, says:

“Harmful gambling is widely recognised as a health and wellbeing issue, with impacts that can be devastating, including heightened risk of suicide attempts and high levels of indebtedness.

“We see from other areas, such as tobacco and alcohol, that effective prevention of harms often requires strict control of the industry and of the environment in which these products are provided.

“Our review suggests that this learning has not yet translated into action on gambling harms.”

In collaboration with  the University of Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Addiction, Control and Governance, the Gambling Research Glasgow group mapped major legislative changes to gambling introduced across 33 jurisdictions between 2018-2021.

Set to inform the Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling which aims to guide action to reduce gambling harms, this work builds on health research around gambling harms by Gambling Research Glasgow.

This project is backed by evidence linking difficulties in gambling to heightened suicidality in young adults, and into the impact of marketing on gambling behaviours.

The findings show that, even in contexts where gambling harms have been recognised at a legislative level, the overarching focus has been on individual level harms rather harms to others or wider social and economic harms.

The University of Glasgow’s Project Investigator, Dr Daria Ukhova adds:

“Relatedly, the foci of harm prevention policies have been on ‘encouraging’ individual control and responsibility, rather than on regulating gambling industry practices and product design.”

The study reveals that most proposed legislative changes for preventing harms are focused on individual responsibility and while policies are changing, gambling as a public health is not yet seen in particular policy actions.

Here, researchers took global approach to reviewing gambling legislation but say that given the ‘powerful role of commercial actors’ in public health policy perceptions, future research should also explore commerical factors.

Dr Ukhova says that governments must stop paying lip service to gambling as a public health issue:

“Once enshrined, gambling legislation can be incredibly difficult to change. The policy cycle is long and can last for years; legislation that is being written today could still be in place for at least another decade.

“Ultimately, if governments are serious about addressing the health issues that arise from gambling harms, they need to stop paying lip service to making changes and get serious about adopting systemic solutions to how gambling is provided – and promoted – in their respective countries.”

Dr Virve Marionneau from the University of Helsinki adds that, despite the “severe harms” caused by gambling globally, policy responses have been “scattered and unstandardised” and this study provides a foundation for policymakers to learn from:

“A comparative understanding of different legislative and regulatory approaches to gambling harms is crucial.

“Our findings support policymakers by providing recommendations for long-term policy directions, interjurisdictional collaboration, and strategic planning on how to address gambling as a public health issue in national legislation and globally.”

While the study recognises the need for some individual measures to reduce gambling-related harm such as treatment, they highlight that this must not replace wider preventative actions.

The researchers warn that the predominance of individual measures in legislation can even restrict future possibilities for public health action on gambling harms.

They are calling for better recognition and response from policymakers, stating that the responsibility for preventing harms lies not only with providers and gamblers but also with legislators and regulators.

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