Gambling is a form of risk-taking in which someone stakes something of value (such as money or property) on an event with a view to winning a prize. It can occur at places like casinos, racetracks and even gas stations. It is important to understand how gambling works because it can lead to serious problems and affect people in many different ways.
The impact of gambling can be observed at the personal, interpersonal and community/societal levels. The most obvious negative impacts are financial and the impact on the gamblers’ families. Other harms include an increase in debt and credit, the use of alcohol or other drugs and the effects arising from an escalation of gambling problems. The social/societal impacts include loss of social cohesion and quality of life.
There are a variety of treatments available to help people overcome their gambling problems. Counseling can provide help with understanding how gambling affects one’s mental health and laying the foundation for repairing relationships and finances. The use of medications may also be beneficial, but it is crucial to take into account any co-occurring disorders.
While there is no definitive answer as to why people gamble, it is known that many do so for social reasons – to socialise, to get an adrenaline rush or to escape from their worries or stress. Others gamble because they have a dream of winning and it gives them hope. Some people, however, find it difficult to recognise when their gambling is becoming a problem and tend to hide their gambling activities from friends and family.
Most gambling happens in casinos, racetracks, sports venues and on the Internet. There are several factors that can influence a person’s decision to gamble, including the type of gambling and the amount of money involved. A person’s motivation can also vary according to their age, gender and social status.
Some researchers have used a public health approach to examine the consequences of gambling, looking at both societal and individual costs and benefits. This includes using a conceptual model where gambling impacts can be compared to other forms of risk-taking, such as drinking and driving or smoking.
Some studies have examined the effects of gambling on a community, finding that they generally cause harm to the community as well as individual gamblers. These results suggest that there is a need to develop a common methodology for analyzing gambling’s impact on society, in particular by considering social impacts. Social impacts are difficult to quantify and have therefore been largely ignored in the calculation of the overall cost-benefits of gambling. The term ‘social impact’ was coined by Williams and Barnett [32]. They define social impacts as “costs that aggregate societal real wealth, i.e., that involve a change in the total quantity of a societal good”. They also distinguish between direct and indirect social impacts. The indirect impacts are costs and benefits that do not appear directly in the gambling process but are associated with it.