1 - The Research Context

Summary

Contemporary Gambling Worldwide

Over the last three decades gambling has undergone a “profound transformation”, as Reith (2003) puts it, in some of the largest markets in the world: “From being regarded as an economically marginal, politically corrupt, and morally dubious activity, it has, at the start of the twenty-first century, become a global player in the economies of North America, Europe, and Australasia.” (p. 9). In jurisdictions where there has been expansion of the availability of gambling there is still an ongoing debate about whether there are net benefits to the community once the economic value of the revenue and jobs created are balanced against the social costs. The latter have mainly been expressed in terms of the incidence of problem or pathological gamblers: those individuals whose involvement in gambling has resulted in a wide range of harmful impacts impinging on themselves and those around them.

One outcome of this “transformation” has been the rapid expansion of gambling research notably in the area of problem gambling. Governments and the gambling industry have often found it a political necessity to evaluate the social impacts of legalising new or additional gambling products, whether gaming machines, casinos or lotteries. Funds have flowed to research in this process and also to support the development of policy to ameliorate the harmful impacts: policy comprising a range of strategies such as community awareness campaigns, harm minimisation and services for client problem gamblers and their families.