Public health approaches to gambling: a global review of legislative trends

Ukhova, D. , Marionneau, V., Nikkinen, J. and Wardle, H. (2024) Public health approaches to gambling: a global review of legislative trends. Lancet Public Health, 9(1), e57-e67. (doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00221-9) (PMID:37944544)

Abstract

The public health community has called for governments to recognise the harms associated with gambling, and for gambling policies to include population-based harm prevention approaches. This Health Policy explores the translation of this call into global policy action by systematically reviewing legislation of jurisdictions that introduced major gambling legislation change (ie, restricting or extending gambling provision) between Jan 1, 2018, and Dec 31, 2021. We mapped the global availability of legal gambling and changes in its provision, and conducted critical frame analysis on a sample of 33 jurisdictions introducing major policy change to assess the extent to which the protection of health and wellbeing was embedded within legislation. More than 80% of countries worldwide now legally permit gambling. Harmful gambling was recognised as a health and wellbeing issue in most of the analysed jurisdictions, but near-exclusive focus was given to individual-level harms rather than to wider social and economic harms, or harms to others. Most of the proposed prevention measures focused on individual responsibility. Gambling policies worldwide are changing, but addressing gambling as a public health issue is not yet translating into comprehensive policy action across jurisdictions.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wardle, Professor Heather and Ukhova, Dr Daria
• Authors: Ukhova, D., Marionneau, V., Nikkinen, J., and Wardle, H.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Lancet Public Health
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2468-2667
• ISSN (Online): 2468-2667
• Published Online: 06 November 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Lancet Public Health 9(1): e57-e67
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
314613		Technological changes and the health and wellbeing of youth: A case study of gambline	Heather Wardle	Wellcome Trust (WELLCOTR)	200306/A/15/Z	S&PS - Sociology