Fig 1 - available from: Harm Reduction Journal
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Number of publications by province and framework factor (Canada). Distribution of Canadian gambling research articles from 2008 to 2017 (n = 750), divided by province of first Canadian coauthor. The area of each pie graph is proportional to the number of articles from the province
Source publication
Background
Harmful gambling is a complex issue with diverse antecedents and resulting harms that have been studied from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Although previous bibliometric reviews of gambling studies have found a dominance of judgement and decision-making research, no bibliometric review has examined the concept of “harm” in the gamb...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... factors were then mapped to subnational geo- graphic regions to determine where there was a stronger focus on specific framework areas. Figure 1 shows the distribution of publications in Canada by province and framework factor. The main centres for gambling re- search are located in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. ...
Citations
... The harmful effects of problem gambling include threats of suicide, loss of savings, harassment from money lenders, loss of property, emotional tensions, and social strain (Kalischuk et al., 2006;Mathews & Volberg, 2013). Consequently, growing recent research has focused on understanding gambling related-harms (Atherton, 2020;Baxter et al., 2019;Goyder et al., 2020;Raybould et al., 2021). ...
Problem gambling has been recognised as an important public health issue because of its harmful consequences at the personal, interpersonal, and societal levels. There is a proliferation of gambling activities in Ghana owing to increased access to the internet, soaring smartphone penetration, and an influx of sports betting companies. Yet, very little research has addressed the harm associated with problem gambling in Ghana. This study assessed if the effect of problem gambling severity on suicidal behaviours (ideation, planning, and attempts) through psychological distress is contingent on the level of perceived social support. A total of 350 young adult men in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana provided the data for the current analysis. The data were analysed using a moderated mediation approach. The results showed that psychological distress is an important intervening mechanism through which problem gambling severity influences suicidality. In addition, the positive association between psychological distress and suicidal behaviours was found to be conditional on the levels of perceived social support. In other words, our results showed that problem gambling may first trigger episodes of psychological distress, which, in turn, can lead to suicidality among problem gamblers who report low to moderate levels of perceived social support. Our findings suggest that young adult problem gamblers require higher levels of social support from family, friends, and significant others to prevent those experiencing psychological distress from engaging in suicidal behaviours.
... In addition to outstanding questions around the psychological drivers of loot box engagement, academic commentators have also stressed the potential impacts of loot box engagement on player financial and psychological wellbeing [12,16,33,34]. While the detrimental effects of problem gambling are well established [35], only a limited number of studies have specifically investigated how engagement with loot boxes might influence (or be influenced by) player wellbeing. While one survey established that loot box purchasers had higher levels of mental distress [33], a second survey found no associations with loot box spending and either distress or mental wellbeing [36]. ...
Loot boxes are purchasable randomized rewards in video games that share structural and psychological similarities with gambling. Systematic review evidence has established reproducible associations between loot box purchasing and both problem gambling and problem video gaming, perhaps driven by a range of overlapping psychological processes (e.g. impulsivity, gambling-related cognitions, etc.) It has also been argued that loot box engagement may have negative influences on player financial and psychological wellbeing. We conducted a pre-registered survey of 1495 loot box purchasing gamers (LB cohort) and 1223 gamers who purchase other, non-randomized game content (nLB cohort). Our survey confirms 15 of our 23 pre-registered hypotheses against our primary outcome (risky loot box engagement), establishing associations with problem gambling, problem gaming, impulsivity, gambling cognitions, experiences of game-related ‘flow’ and specific ‘distraction and compulsion’ motivations for purchase. Results with hypotheses concerning potential harms established that risky loot box engagement was negatively correlated with wellbeing and positively correlated with distress. Overall, results indicate that any risks from loot boxes are liable to disproportionately affect various ‘at risk’ cohorts (e.g. those experiencing problem gambling or video gaming), thereby reiterating calls for policy action on loot boxes.
... Em termos de políticas de saúde pública, este autor recomenda a redução da exposição a formas mais tóxicas de jogo, ao mesmo tempo que se facilita o acesso a intervenções a jogadores problemáticos ou em risco de o virem a ser. Também Baxter et al. (2019) realizam um estudo bibliométrico em que contextualizam o conceito de "harm" em três países diferentes, ao mesmo tempo que referem a preponderância da investigação na área de tomada de decisão no contexto do gambling. ...
Enquadramento: O Gambling é uma área de estudo complexa que implica diferentes olhares e perspetivas disciplinares. Diversos estudos bibliométricos encontraram uma preponderância na área da investigação da tomada de decisão, entre outras áreas. Pretende‑se contextualizar essa preponderância, ao mesmo tempo que se atualiza tendências de investigação na área.
Métodos: Conduziu‑se uma análise bibliométrica usando a base de dados Web of Science, onde se obteve um total de 4262 artigos publicados num intervalo (2019‑ 21 de março de 2022). Utilizou‑se
a análise de resultados da WoS para realizar uma descrição dos resultados. Exportou‑se posteriormente esta mesma análise para o VOSviewer, por forma a identificar‑se campos de trabalho e tendências de investigação.
Resultados: No que concerne a resultados, destacamos a existência de três grandes clusters de palavras‑chave correspondendo a gambling no geral; gambling disorder e decision making. Um quarto cluster emergiu, com menor representatividade, correspondendo a temas como addiction e metanálises. No que diz respeito a temas emergentes, identificámos palavras‑chave com tempo médio de publicação mais recente como: loot boxes; adolescents, covid‑19; stress; internet; gambling harm; internet gaming disorder, entre outros.
Conclusões: Os resultados corroboram a tendência da literatura de aproximar os comportamentos relacionados com o gambling de outras patologias aditivas, nomeadamente o Substance Abuse, o uso problemático da internet e o gaming. Registamos ainda a temática do COVID‑19 como emergente quer em termos de palavras‑chave registadas quer ainda no que concerne aos artigos. Surgiram, na análise das palavras‑chave, três grandes clusters: um relacionado com o gambling e o problem gambling; um outro relacionado com o gambling disorder e um último em que o termo decision making assume um papel central. As palavras‑chave com mais impacto e com tempo de publicação mais recente foram COVID‑19, mas também algumas dimensões da internet, videojogos e as loot boxes em que a temática do gaming e o
gambling se podem cruzar.
... The gambling studies field has been described as multidisciplinary [19], though it remains dominated by certain disciplines, specifically psychiatry, neuroscience, psychology, and health sciences [20,21]. The field has also been criticized for being insular, uncritical, and homogeneous [22,23]. ...
The objective of this study was to examine the distribution of prestigious speaking roles by gender at gambling studies conferences to better understand the state of gender representation within the field. Keyword searches were conducted in the fall of 2019. A total of 16 conferences that occurred between 2010-2019 and comprising 882 prestigious speaking opportunities were included. Quantitative analysis (i.e., t-tests, chi-squared posthoc tests) was undertaken to evaluate the representation of women speakers and if proportions were the same across genders for speakers. There were significantly less women than men within prestigious speaking roles at gambling studies conferences with only 30.2% of speakers being women (p < .001). This underrepresentation of women was consistent across conference location, speaker continent, speaker role, time, and across the majority of conferences. Women held prestigious speaking roles less frequently than men (M = 1.48 vs. 1.76; p < .001). A 9 to 1 (p < .001) ratio of men to women was found among top 10 most frequent prestigious speakers. While there was a higher proportion of women than men among student speakers and there was no significant gender disparity among early career researchers, there was a significantly lower proportion of women than men among speakers who hold more senior academic positions. There is an issue of gender disparity in prestigious speaking roles at conferences within the gambling studies field. This study highlights the need to counteract gender disparities and make room for diversity within the field.
... Past research has focused on people suffering from severe gambling disorders (Baxter, Hilbrecht, & Wheaton, 2019;Price, Hilbrecht, & Billi, 2021). However, a more recent wave of research employs a public health approach that also recognises the broader effects of gambling on people without a mental health diagnosis of disordered gambling (Wardle, Reith, Langham, & Rogers, 2019) as well as people socially connected to the gambler who are often called concerned-significant others (CSOs) or affected others (AOs). ...
Background and aims:
Legacy gambling harms are negative consequences of gambling that extend past periods of low risk, moderate risk and problem gambling. Gambling harm is typically measured within a 12-month timeframe and is often restricted to examining harm amongst active gamblers. The present research aimed to explore whether people experienced gambling harms 12 months or more after the resolution of at-risk or problem gambling, and how long these legacy harms lasted.
Methods:
An online survey was conducted in New Zealand with past and current gamblers and concerned significant others (CSOs) of gamblers, N = 1,240 (50.8% female), that asked them about both past and current gambling harms.
Results:
A majority of both gamblers and CSOs of gamblers indicated that they still suffered from gambling harm even after most of their behavioural issues with gambling had been resolved, 12+ months ago. Legacy gambling harms reduced over time, with harms diminishing most quickly in the early years, and having an average half-life of 4 years. Harms involving community-relationships, church involvement, and domestic and other violence resolved more quickly than others.
Discussion and conclusions:
Legacy harms are common among ex-problem gamblers and should be considered in any full accounting of the impacts of gambling.
Conclusion:
Understanding the time course and persistence of legacy harms from gambling can provide gamblers, treatment professionals and public health experts with insights into how to address gambling's long-term consequences.
... Since 2010, public health research on gambling has further expanded with focus also directed at conceptualizations, measurement, and empirical exploration. Harms that do not directly derive from excessive or addictive consumption, but also of non-problematic gambling or of gambling provision more generally have also been recently highlighted (Browne et al. , 2021Baxter et al. 2019;Sulkunen et al. 2019). However, differences in how harms are conceptualized continue to exist across disciplines but also between cultural contexts. ...
... However, differences in how harms are conceptualized continue to exist across disciplines but also between cultural contexts. For instance, Baxter et al. (2019) found that Australian gambling research is more strongly characterized by discussion on exposure and gambling environments, whereas research in New Zealand focuses more strongly on gambling resources (harm reduction, treatment) as factors of harm or harm prevention. In Canada, psychological and biological factors have been emphasized. ...
... However, there remains an inconsistency across studies regarding instruments employed. A bibliometric study of gambling harms (Baxter et al. 2019) similarly found that psychological harms were overrepresented in literature, but harms related to resources have also become increasingly important. ...
Background
A public health approach to gambling has been accompanied by a wide understanding of gambling harms. This has led to the creation of conceptual frameworks to understand and itemize different gambling-related harms, dimensions of harms, and subjects of harms. The current paper presents a comparative review and synthesis of existing harm frameworks.
Method
Following the PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic literature review on existing harm frameworks in five scientific databases across the years 2000–2021. We included studies that aimed at creating a conceptual framework or synthesis of different level gambling harms at a population level. The final sample consists of seven papers that present four different models.
Results
Gambling-related harms span health, psychological, relationship, financial, cultural, work, and crime-related issues. Harms accrue to individuals (heavy gamblers, non-problem gamblers and nongamblers), but also to families, communities, and societies. Harms form a spectrum in terms of severity and temporality. Risk factors or determinants of gambling are often similar to the harmful consequences of gambling.
Conclusions
The results are discussed in terms of gaps in current understanding of gambling harms, including increased communication between models, increased focus on severity levels and issues of causality, and a better incorporation of harms that stem from gambling provision rather than harmful gambling consumption. We conclude that framing harms as consequences of individual behavior remains predominant, and a shift of focus to the social and commercial determinants of gambling harms is needed. This also includes the development of societal level harm screening.
... It has long been recognised that a gambling disorder has profoundly negative effects on the person who gambles. It is not surprising, therefore, that most research in the gambling field has focused on the prevalence, individual characteristics and treatment of people with a severe gambling problem [15,16]. More recently, a public health view of gambling has been gaining traction to recognise and respond to the broader effects of gambling on individuals, families and communities [17]. ...
Purpose of Review
Legacy gambling harm refers to adverse consequences that extend past the period where people are actively gambling at harmful levels. These harms can affect the gambler, people close to them and the wider community. This article reviews current research that investigates legacy harms; the types of legacy harm, how long they last and whether evidence suggests these harms are real or instead imagined injuries or reflections on past regrets.
Recent Findings
Legacy harms to individuals can be broadly categorised as including financial, relationship, emotional/psychological, health, culture, work/study and criminal/deviance harms. In addition, legacy harms affect entire communities by drawing funds and social capital away from vulnerable communities, leaving them socially, culturally and materially impoverished. Most legacy harms that accrue to gamblers have a half-life of 4 years, although financial harms last somewhat longer at 5 years. Greater distance in time from a past gambling issue is reliably and positively related to health and well-being indicators, including the Health Utility Index and the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, which suggests that legacy gambling harms are real and have a lasting impact on well-being, rather than just imagined hardship from prior gambling difficulties.
Summary
These findings suggest programme and policy development to support gamblers in reducing and managing their legacy harms, rather than focusing only on relapse prevention.
... While legislative inaction has been associated with limited evidence of harm arising from gaming-gambling convergence, plausibly, this lack of evidence could be partly due to the influence gaming regulations have on research. Gambling research appears to reflect the nature of gambling regulations of the jurisdictions from which they originate (Baxter et al. 2019). Researchers investigating gaminggambling convergence should thus be conscious of this potential bias when formulating research aims, questions, and methods. ...
A convergence of gaming and gambling products, services, and platforms is presently drawing considerable policy debate. This convergence may be giving rise to a critical area of consumer vulnerability given the addictive potential of gaming and gambling. While some convergence aspects are gaining research attention, the broader contexts of the phenomenon have not been adequately examined. In light of this, the present study aimed to inform four key enquiry areas pertaining to gaming-gambling convergence—contexts and drivers, definitions and framings, risk and harm, and legislative response. Using a narrative review method, 108 articles from the academic and grey literature were examined and thematically summarised to provide an overview of the convergence phenomenon. Findings indicate convergence in multiple overlapping contexts (gaming elements in gambling, games incorporating gambling elements, gambling on games, free simulated online gambling, and social media games and gambling) driven by technological advances and commercial interests. Findings related to definitions and framing include the industry’s strategic use of the term gaming to reduce negative connotations associated with gambling, and community perceptions of gaming as legitimate and harmless entertainment. Potential risks include transitions from games (without money) to real-money gambling, and problem co-existence. Legislative responses are beginning to emerge with the greatest focus being on loot boxes in games. However, the limited evidence of risk and harm has led to hesitancies in legislative actions to regulate gaming-gambling hybrids in some jurisdictions. Considering that convergence is supported by rapid advances in technology and is taking place largely on the Internet (accessible 24 h), harms for consumers could manifest quickly and spread broadly across societies before their existence and severity are established. Based on the Precautionary Principle, the present evidence base call for harm prevention policies and regulations in addition to changes in the definition of money (including digital currency and microtransaction) in gaming and gambling laws.
... As it is impossible to include all relevant studies (Petticrew & Roberts, 2006) and keep a dataset manageable, several restrictions are implemented by researchers in the selection of manuscripts; examples include databases in which studies are indexed, such as Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycInfo (Baxter, Hilbrecht, & Wheaton, 2019;Reynolds, Kairouz, Ilacqua, & French, 2020;Tse, Hong, Wang, & Cunningham-Williams, 2012). ...
This study presents a large-scale mapping review of how the literature on gambling identifies suggested solutions to prevent or reduce gambling harm and whose responsibility it is to implement them. The purpose of this is to provide a concise reference for stakeholders who must make critical decisions regarding the enhancement of consumer protection and harm minimization measures. Two databases, Scopus and Web of Science, were searched to identify relevant studies. The initial search yielded 5135 results, from which a total of 1292 empirical studies published between 2014 and 2018 were selected for analysis. Inductive content analysis was performed to identify suggested solutions reported in each study. The results indicate that commonly suggested solutions are the creation of educational and awareness programs (e.g., information on the risks of gambling, resources for help seekers, how games really work) and further restrictions on gambling advertising. We found that health service providers are mostly given the responsibility to implement various strategies, followed by policy makers. Numerous empirically proven suggestions for health service providers, policy makers, gambling industry operators, educational institutions, consumers, and families are discussed in detail.
... The highest number of gambling studies was conducted in the USA (33.28%) followed by Australia (25.15%), Canada (23.76%), the UK (15.33%), and New Zealand (2.48%). Previous literature review studies on gambling have reported a similar gambling study distribution across these countries (Baxter et al., 2019;Dowling et al., 2017). ...
... School-based gambling education programs which focus on reducing and preventing problem gambling among youths are highly recommended. Interestingly, however, data from Baxter et al. (2019) show that school-based gambling education programs (i.e., "Education System") are one of the very least studied strategies to address harmful gambling in their sample of 1424 articles on gambling harm. This suggests that there may be important incongruences between the solutions suggested by researchers and those which are actually implemented, studied and/or tested. ...
The goal of the present systematic review is to identify emerging gambling problems and the harm minimization strategies proposed to address them. Our interdisciplinary research team conducted this systematic literature review in 5 nations between which there is significant gambling research exchange. A keyword search of the Scopus and Web of Science databases followed by filtering using inclusion criteria identified 1292 empirical gambling studies from peer-reviewed journals. The data obtained from the articles were analyzed using the content analysis technique. We then used a unique approach to identify relationships between harm minimization strategies and gambling problems. The findings reveal that the most frequently reported gambling problems are related to young gamblers, online gambling, electronic gaming machines, and children and adolescents (underage gamblers). Harm minimization strategies to address these included creating educational and awareness programs, further restrictions on gambling advertising, developing an intervention mechanism for online gambling, and remote gambling-related help (i.e., online counseling, online treatment).
