Gambling-related harms evidence review: summary

By taking this step, you create a barrier between yourself and gambling, making it harder to place bets impulsively. Seeking cognitive behavioral therapy can help you identify and adjust the underlying beliefs that may be contributing to gambling behavior. Many people are able to gamble within their means without experiencing a compulsion. Others, however, develop an unhealthy relationship with gambling that can cause serious challenges. Economic instability, relationship conflict, gambling disorder, and other mental health conditions are all potential impacts of compulsive gambling.

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study. Several countries have a capped number of licenses for casinos or gambling houses; however, these limitations often last for a short time, and the quality of empirical research in this area should improve. A quality assessment procedure (e.g., the Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR 2) 26) was not used in this review, as most of the studies would have been rated of weak quality and eliminated. These therapies can be tailored to your individual needs, addressing both the psychological aspects of addiction and the practical steps towards recovery. Your rules are a commitment to yourself and to those supporting you through recovery.

Never Bend the Rules in Recovery

Creating a circle of accountability with your family, friends, and support groups like Gamblers Anonymous can significantly enhance your recovery process. When you share your struggles, you’re not just seeking sympathy; you’re enlisting a team of personal allies in your fight against gambling. These are the people who will check in on you, offer a listening ear, and remind you of your strengths and progress when the path seems daunting.

• Collaboration with app stores, developers, and distribution sites could offer a way forward.
• It involves exploring past traumas, current stressors, and unmet emotional needs that may be fueling your gambling behaviors.
• Articles were included in this review if they involved problem gambling interventions or if they involved interventions for other substances or problem behaviors in addition to problem gambling.
• Most of the strategies proposed can be implemented only by the gambling industry (e.g., pop-up messages and feedback, limits on bets or note acceptors) or at the national level (e.g., types of gambling allowed).
• Gambling addiction, like any other form of addiction, can have devastating effects on an individual’s life, impacting their financial stability, relationships, and mental health.

Second, effectiveness studies should better consider fidelity and compliance in implementing strategies. Some strategies require verification, their violation should be penalized, and their facilitators should be identified. Most of the strategies are related to relations within a community or between operators and customers. More studies about the role of communities and stakeholders should be conducted to identify facilitators and obstacles in implementations, verify the effectiveness of new strategies, and valuing social capital to prevent gambling and its risks.

Pop-ups can be utilised, for example, to remind gamblers about pre-set monetary or time limits 22, 42, 63. Pop-ups can be effective in limiting gambling consumption, but effectiveness depends on implementation 21, 22. Overall, more engaging and personalised pop-ups are connected to higher adherence to limits 22.

Signs of gambling addiction

Whether you’re taking the first steps towards recovery or seeking ways to manage underlying issues contributing to your gambling habits, I’m here to help. Regular exercise is a powerful stress reliever as it releases endorphins, making you mentally healthy and helping you fight urges. This can reduce the risk of relapse as individuals won’t consider gambling as a way of relieving stress. Exercise was found to be effective as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of GD and co-occurring psychiatric disorders, according to research by the Nigerian Journal of Experimental and Clinical Biosciences. Establishing financial boundaries involves setting limits to your net spending and creating a budget. Gambling addiction causes financial instability, and many individuals go back to gambling to recover those losses.

Ensure that all online gambling sites, apps, and even e-commerce sites do not have your credit card, PayPal, or other online payment methods saved. Self-exclusion programs are initiatives offered by gambling sites, apps, and even regulatory bodies that allow individuals to request to be banned from accessing gambling facilities. Once an individual signs up for a self-exclusion program, the platforms or regulatory bodies enforce the ban, making it significantly harder for the individual to gamble online.

This study aims to conduct an umbrella review of gambling preventive and harm reduction strategies, which can be implemented at a local level (e.g., realized by regions, municipalities, or local organizations) and targeted at adults. Specifically, we want to (1) synthesize the evidence of the effectiveness of these strategies and (2) identify the effective implementation conditions and targets. Many of the studies involved gambling help websites that were available over the internet and as such could have been accessed by anyone with an internet connection. Due to this lack of a physical geographical location, each study will be defined as the country from which the internet-based interventions were delivered. There was a strong representation of research from Australia and New Zealand, with 7 articles examining online-delivered problem gambling interventions 13-20.

These studies provided descriptive profiles of users 32 and gender comparisons in the types of online resources accessed 18. Single, unmistakable indicators for problems are uncommon, and therefore detection of risk indicators usually relies on algorithms to detect interaction between these. Further research is still required to untangle whether game-specific characteristics play a causal role in the emergence of gambling problems. Research is also needed on a variety of different player accounts, as the vast majority of research has been done with a single dataset from one European gambling site, which may not be generalizable to other online gamblers. Identifying, detecting and acting on early risk indicators may reduce gambling-related harms sustained by Internet gamblers. However, few online operators have shared their data to be used for research purposes or implemented policies and strategies to detect potentially risky players and implement appropriate resources.

If you had only focused on preventing the problem in the first place, you might not be in this mess. Over the last few years working in problem gambling prevention, I’ve come to see the importance of stopping a problem before it starts. Emotional stress, anxiety, or personal issues can make it worse, and professional help is necessary to overcome it. Support groups can also be helpful, allowing individuals living with addiction to connect with each other, share their experiences, and discuss strategies for managing symptoms. Gamblers Anonymous is an organization that hosts in-person groups across the United Kingdom. The proportion of children and young people (11 to 16) who participate in any gambling is reducing, similar to the trend in reducing participation in other risky behaviours.

As young people got older there was a significant increase in online gambling among boys. Demographic factors, particularly being male, appear more significant in predicting at-risk gambling behaviour than economic factors such as income, employment, and relative deprivation. Poor mental health is a stronger predictor of at-risk gambling than both poor physical health and negative health behaviours, with the notable exception of alcohol.

A medical or mental health professional can provide you with screenings (e.g., the Problem Gambling Severity Index) and determine whether further testing, a diagnosis, and treatment may be necessary. The excess costs of harmful gambling (direct financial cost to government plus societal value of health impacts) were estimated to be between £1.05 and £1.77 billion for England. But we expect that the true costs are higher because the lack of evidence meant that it was not possible to cost all types nine casino of harms or the wider harms to individuals or society. Two quantitative studies (of moderate and high quality) reported that deaths from suicide were significantly higher among adults with gambling disorder or problems compared to the general adult population.

As found in a review by Barak et al, internet-based psychotherapeutic interventions show similar effect sizes (weighted mean 0.53) compared with face-to-face therapies. Their review also showed that across 14 studies, the weighted effect sizes of internet-based therapies versus face-to-face therapies were not statistically significant. Research is needed to understand how to reduce the likelihood of people transitioning to disordered gambling. The Internet offers a potentially strong environment for the provision of responsible gambling, including player-focused tools and resources for moderating play such as expenditure tracking, self-set spend limits, time outs and information 19•, 84. Furthermore, operators can enact strategies to assist customers including targeted notifications (e.g. pop-up messages) based on patterns of play and other tailored contacts derived from analysis of player accounts to identify risky behaviour 2, 85. Treatment and prevention strategies must be revisited to ensure that these are relevant and effective for Internet gamblers.

Longitudinal research will be an important addition to this field to address these issues. However, there is a growing recognition that Internet gamblers are a heterogeneous group, and research needs to consider how Internet gambling behaviour may be integrated more broadly with offline gambling 48, 65. Further evidence to question the extent to which Internet gambling increases rates of problem gambling can be taken from prevalence studies. Despite rates of Internet gambling increasing in several jurisdictions, little evidence has been found to suggest that the prevalence of problem gambling has increased 13, 53, 54. An analysis across 30 European jurisdictions failed to identify any association between prohibitions against online gambling, gambling licencing systems, the extent of legal gambling opportunities and the prevalence of gambling disorder 55••. Many online gambling sites offer self-exclusion options, allowing you to block your access for a set period.

Therefore, different interventions or strategies can be used at the local level than those at the national level. Finally, it is important that both national and local prevention policies follow effectiveness and evidence-based criteria. Otherwise, inconsistent strategies can be suggested and conflicts between different systems may emerge 18,21. Blaszczynski and Nower posit gambling initiation is largely determined by the availability and accessibility of gambling opportunities, which serve as key ecological determinants 10. Many studies have reported that increased accessibility to gambling opportunities correlates with higher rates of gambling addiction 11, 12.

Several studies reported that gambling led to bankruptcy and housing problems including homelessness. We identified 45 possible risk factors within these 39 reviews, and three-quarters of these (33 factors) were individual (personal) level risk factors. The remaining related to families or other social influences (5 factors), community-level influences (4 factors) and societal influences (3 factors). The extent of gambling among children and young people (aged 11 to 16) is lower than drinking alcohol but higher than using e-cigarettes, smoking tobacco cigarettes, or taking illegal drugs.

Recognizing this limitation is crucial in seeking external measures like self-exclusion to create physical and psychological barriers against the temptation to gamble. The sample item included “When angry, I yell or throw objects.” The responses were scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“not at all”) to 5 (“very much so”), with a higher score indicating higher levels of impulsivity. Sensation-seeking was evaluated using eight items regarding the desire to pursue an experience of thrill and adventures 30. Using techniques like stress management, meditation, regular exercise, and a balanced diet can significantly reduce the risk of relapse by promoting emotional well-being and helping in the development of coping mechanisms. Samples of help seekers were common in the selected studies being the focus of 12 of the included studies 13,15-19,20-24,37. Surrounding oneself with supportive friends, family, and peers can make a significant difference in maintaining recovery.

These sessions were performed using a variety of methods including videoconferencing, telephone, email, and chat. Several studies analyzed the transcripts from chat sessions between consumers and mental health professionals on gambling help websites 14,15,17,18. These single chat sessions were often on a nonappointment basis, and were frequently accessed by first time help seekers.