The Lancet Public Health: New Commission calls for regulatory reform to tackle the health impacts of the rapid global expansion of commercial gambling

**Embargo: 23.30 [UK time] / 06.30pm [US ET] Thursday 24th October 2024**

Peer reviewed / Literature review, systematic review and meta-analysis, opinion / People

Embargoed access to the Commission report and contact details for authors are available in Notes to Editors at the end of the release.

The Lancet Public Health: New Commission calls for regulatory reform to tackle the health impacts of the rapid global expansion of commercial gambling

• Gambling harms are far more substantial than previously understood, exacerbated by rapid global expansion and digital transformation of the gambling industry. 
• Harms from gambling include physical and mental health problems, relationship breakdown, heightened risk of suicide and domestic violence, increased crime, loss of employment and financial losses.
• An estimated 80 million adults globally experience gambling disorder or problematic gambling.
• The harms of gambling are not evenly distributed; adolescents, children and those from disadvantaged socio-economic groups are more at risk. Lower- and middle-income countries are less equipped to regulate the industry and deal with the harms it generates. 
• Effective and well-resourced regulatory controls and international leadership are urgently needed to reduce the impact of commercial gambling on public health and protect progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Stronger global regulatory controls are needed to reduce the impact of commercial gambling on worldwide health and wellbeing, according to a new Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling.

The Commission brought together a multidisciplinary group of leading experts in gambling studies, public health, global health policy, risk control and regulatory policy, alongside contributors who have first-hand experience of gambling harms. After reviewing the literature, and figures generated from a systematic review and meta-analysis, the Commissioners concluded that ‘gambling poses a threat to public health, the control of which requires a substantial expansion and tightening of gambling industry regulation.’

Professor Heather Wardle, Co-Chair of the Commission from the University of Glasgow, explained the changing nature of gambling: “Most people think of a traditional Las Vegas casino or buying a lottery ticket when they think of gambling. They don’t think of large technology companies deploying a variety of techniques to get more people to engage more frequently with a commodity that can pose substantial risks to health, but this is the reality of gambling today.

“Anyone with a mobile phone now has access to what is essentially a casino in their pocket, 24 hours a day. Highly sophisticated marketing and technology make it easier to start, and harder to stop gambling, and many products now use design mechanics to encourage repeated and longer engagement. The global growth trajectory of this industry is phenomenal; collectively we need to wake up and take action. If we delay, gambling and gambling harms will become even more widely embedded as a global phenomenon and much harder to tackle”, she added.

The extent of gambling harms

A systematic review and meta-analysis conducted for the Commission estimates that approximately 448·7 million adults worldwide experience any risk gambling, where individuals experience at least one behavioural symptom or adverse personal, social or health consequence of gambling. Of these, an estimated 80 million adults experience gambling disorder or problematic gambling [1]. These estimates are likely to be conservative. 

The new analysis also estimates that gambling disorder could affect 15·8% of the adults and 26·4% of the adolescents who gamble using online casino or slot products, and 8·9% of the adults and 16·3% of the adolescents who gamble using sports betting products. Online casino and online sports betting are two of the most rapidly expanding areas for commercial gambling globally.

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, relationship and family breakdown, heightened risk of suicide and domestic violence, increased crime against property and people, and loss of employment. 

The Commission report notes that this impact is not spread evenly through populations, and specific groups face an elevated risk of harms. These include children and adolescents who are routinely exposed to advertising of gambling products in ways that were unprecedented before the digital revolution. In addition, gambling is often embedded into the architecture of video games.

Speaking about those who are most vulnerable, Dr Kristiana Siste, Commissioner, the Universitas Indonesia, said: “We need to 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 children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the allure of easy money and the game-like designs of online gambling.”

Challenging the role of the gambling industry in protecting and promoting its interests

The Commission report describes how a complex ecosystem underlies how the commercial gambling sector promotes its products and protects its interests. This includes innovative digital marketing approaches rooted in deep surveillance to target consumers online, widespread sports and broadcast media sponsorship, and fintech. The Commission report also raises concerns about how the commercial gambling sector undermines legitimate science on the impact of gambling, reframes discussions about gambling to promote individual responsibility and consumer freedom, and influences political processes around gambling regulation.

Professor Malcolm Sparrow, Commissioner, Harvard Kennedy School, explains the need for increased regulation of gambling: “While the industry continues to promote gambling as harmless entertainment, countries and communities are experiencing rapidly increasing threats from gambling harms.”

“The Commission urges policy makers to treat gambling as a public health issue, just as we treat other addictive and unhealthy commodities such as alcohol and tobacco. We call for policy makers to make protection from gambling-related harms the primary and dominant regulatory focus, and to insulate the policy making process more effectively from industry influence”, he added.

Commercial gambling risks exacerbating inequalities

Commercial gambling is available in over 80% of countries globally, with expansion escalating particularly quickly in lower- and middle-income countries, which often have a weak regulatory infrastructure to address this global industry and its harms. A heavy burden of harm falls on individuals who are already socially disadvantaged.

Given the widespread and escalating harms associated with gambling, the Commission report highlights multiple ways in which commercial gambling might seriously undermine progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goals. This includes hindering progress on key areas such as reducing inequality and poverty, improving gender equality, and improving health and well-being. 

“Gambling disorder has evolved into a borderless crisis, affecting individuals and societies across the globe. Although gambling is illegal here in Indonesia, online gambling is prevalent and the number of transactions have exploded in recent years. The gambling products are provided from international servers, and our national law enforcement is unable to restrict access”, said Dr Siste. 

“We will only be able to make progress through coordinated international efforts, combining global policy reform, cross-border cooperation, and collective harm reduction strategies”, she added.

In-country regulation is needed alongside international efforts

The Commission calls for effective gambling regulation to be put in place in all countries, irrespective of whether gambling is legally permitted. This should include reductions in population exposure and the availability of gambling, through prohibitions or restrictions on access, promotion, marketing, and sponsorship. The Commission recommendations also ask for the provision of affordable, universal support and treatment for gambling harms alongside well-resourced social marketing and awareness campaigns to raise awareness of harms. 

Dr Charles Livingstone, Commissioner, Monash University, described the situation in Australia: “Australians spend the most per head on gambling worldwide, $AUD 1,555 per adult per year [2]. Both online betting, boosted by close connection with football and other sports, and electronic gaming machine gambling continues to grow at a rapid pace here, despite escalating concerns of ordinary people and the voice of those affected by gambling harms becoming more prominent. 

“There is a desire for change and to rightly treat gambling as a serious public health issue in Australia, given the extent and nature of harm. Yet extensive evidence of dishonest and illegal behaviour by casino operators requires Herculean efforts to properly regulate these entities, and the commercial gambling industry more broadly have been shown to be heavily resistant to reform efforts”, he concluded.

The Commission stresses that global leadership will be needed to ensure gambling is prioritised as a global public health issue. It asks that UN entities, particularly the WHO, and intergovernmental organisations incorporate a focus on gambling harms into their strategies and workplans for improving health and wellbeing broadly.

A new international alliance should also be developed to advocate to reduce gambling harms and provide leadership, made up of people with lived experience of gambling harms, professional organisations and researchers. The Commission also calls for a World Health Assembly resolution on the public health dimensions of gambling.

NOTES TO EDITORS

[1] Key terms used in the release:
Gambling disorder: a recognised disorder in the two major classifications of mental and behavioural disorders—the ICD-11 and the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistics Manual-5 (DSM-5).16 The DSM-5 states that gambling disorder is identified by a pattern of repeated and ongoing betting and wagering that continues despite creating multiple problems in several areas of an individual’s life. The ICD-11 states that gambling disorder is characterised by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gambling behaviour, manifested by impaired control over gambling (eg, onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context), increasing priority given to gambling to the extent that gambling takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gambling despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The pattern of gambling behaviour might be continuous or episodic and recurrent. The pattern of gambling behaviour results in substantial distress or impairments to personal, familial, social, educational, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. 

Problem or problematic gambling: a commonly used term to describe gambling practices that create multiple problems that disrupt personal, family, financial, and employment circumstances; this term is sometimes used interchangeably with gambling disorder. 

Any risk gambling: this term is used to include individuals who meet the thresholds for problematic or gambling disorder, but also includes individuals who, at a minimum, report sometimes or occasionally experiencing at least one behavioural symptom or adverse personal, social, or health-related consequence from gambling; this group represents the full range of risk severity. 

[2] Data taken from https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/statistics/theme/society/gambling/australian-gambling-statistics.

For a full list of authors and funding, please see the Commission report.

Quotes from authors cannot be found in the text of the Commission report, but have been supplied for the press release.