With the rise in popularity of online betting and commercial gambling, public health officials are looking at the potential danger that it brings in a new report.
The report was published last Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet. It was conducted by a commission on gambling that saw 22 academic experts from a dozen countries review existing studies and surveys on the prevalence of gambling, its impacts, and its harms.
The report concluded that current gambling regulations do not do enough to protect the public and need to be strengthened globally.
The commission’s epidemiology lead, Louisa Degenhardt, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, shared in the report that the world of gambling has evolved, and efforts to protect the public need to evolve with it.
“We’re not talking about people playing a game with cards around the table anymore,” Degenhardt said. “Many people might be really experiencing harms from gambling — we think that it’s probably around 72 million people globally. That number is likely to increase, as we are seeing the increase in commercial organizations targeting people to gamble more.”
In some capacity, gambling is legal in more than 80% of the world’s countries, the report shared.
Based on their findings, the authors of the report estimate that 16% of adults and 26% of adolescents who use online casino or slot products have gambling disorders. For those who use sports betting products, the report estimates that 9% of adults and 16% of adolescents have gambling disorders.
Gambling can not only result in serious financial losses but can also lead people to lose their jobs, relationships, and health. It can also raise the risk of suicide and domestic violence, the report shared.
The report pointed to the increased availability of gambling, naming online sports betting apps like DraftKings and FanDuel as examples in the US. The platforms have blown up since 2018, when sports betting bans were struck down by the US Supreme Court. Since then, 38 states, and Washington, DC, have legalized the practice.
“The accessibility is now 24/7,” Heather Wardle, a researcher on the commission and a professor of urban studies, social policy and health at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, shared in the report. “They can target advertising to you that they know you will respond to. It makes it incredibly difficult to switch off... Any greater exposure to gambling is associated with greater harms.”
FanDuel shared with NBC News that it “fully supports a regulated marketplace that protects customers and delivers significant tax revenue to states.” It also said it’s “helping to lead continued discussions across the industry that prioritize creating best practices to protect customers.”
DraftKings says on its website that it advises users to “avoid gaming if you are in recovery from any dependency.”
As for possible solutions, the report suggests restricting gambling access and advertisements, having marketing campaigns about the consequences of gambling, and increasing access to support for those suffering from the harms of gambling.
The authors are also calling on world governments to implement and enforce minimum age requirements and betting limits.
Even with all of these solutions, which some countries already have in place, Wardle warns that the expansion of commercial gambling poses a serious threat.
“We know that gambling can be associated with very severe harms to health, to individuals, and it can be an addictive behavior,” she said. “Our recommendations focus very much on that prioritization of protection of health and then the implementation of very strong regulatory systems to be able to protect public health while still permitting gambling to happen.”