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Online gambling has fueled an industry boom that threatens public health, commission finds




The rise of online betting has led the commercial gambling industry to balloon worldwide, posing a significant threat to public health, according to a new report.


The report, published Thursday, comes from a public health commission on gambling convened by the medical journal The Lancet. The commission’s 22 members — academic experts from a dozen countries — reviewed existing studies and surveys on gambling’s prevalence, impacts and harms and determined that on a global scale, current regulations do not go far enough to protect the public and need to be strengthened.


“We’re not talking about people playing a game with cards around the table anymore,” said the commission’s epidemiology lead, Louisa Degenhardt, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. “Many people might be really experiencing harms from gambling — we think that it’s probably around 72 million people globally. That number is likely to increase, as we are seeing the increase in commercial organizations targeting people to gamble more.”


Gambling is legal in some capacity in more than 80% of countries worldwide, according to the report. Based on their systematic review of research, the authors estimated that 16% of adults and 26% of adolescents who use online casino or slot products have gambling disorders and that 9% of adults and 16% of adolescents who use sports betting products have such disorders.


In the U.S., 38 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized sports betting since the Supreme Court struck down a ban in 2018, according to the American Gaming Association. Thirty states permit and regulate mobile sports betting. A 2022 Pew Research survey found that 19% of U.S. adults had placed sports bets either in person or online in the last year

An international group of health experts concluded that existing regulations globally are insufficient to protect the public from the potential harms of widely accessible gambling.


Beyond financial losses, gambling can lead people to lose their jobs, relationships or health and raise the risks of suicidality and domestic violence, the report said. Even people who do not qualify as having gambling disorders suffer their harms, the commission found, including casual gamblers and relatives of those experiencing problematic gambling.


The report highlighted the role online gambling has played in the rising availability of commercial gambling as a whole. It named legal sports betting apps like DraftKings or FanDuel as examples in the U.S., along with online casinos and slot machines.


“The accessibility is now 24/7,” said Heather Wardle, a researcher on the commission and a professor of urban studies, social policy and health at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “They can target advertising to you that they know you will respond to. It makes it incredibly difficult to switch off. ... Any greater exposure to gambling is associated with greater harms.”


A representative for FanDuel said that it “fully supports a regulated marketplace that protects customers and delivers significant tax revenue to states” and that it is “helping to lead continued discussions across the industry that prioritize creating best practices to protect customers.”


The platform offers its users the ability to set limits on their deposits, wagers and time spent on its apps, as well as an option to self-exclude from further betting.


DraftKings, which declined to comment, offers similar protections. Its website advises users to “always set reasonable limits” and recommends that people “avoid gaming if you are in recovery from any dependency.” Both companies follow state regulations.


In its report, the Lancet commission criticized governments worldwide for paying too little attention to the harms of gambling and not implementing sufficient gambling-related public health protections. The authors recommended that leaders adopt policy frameworks that put the onus on gambling businesses, instead of gamblers, to minimize harm.


Their suggestions include restricting gambling access and advertisements, launching marketing campaigns about the consequences of gambling and providing more robust support for those who suffer harms. The authors also called on governments to implement and enforce minimum age requirements and betting limits.


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