The LancetOct 25 2024
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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 . 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.