IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/intgms/v17y2017i2p163-175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A population-level metric for gambling-related harm

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Browne
  • Nancy Greer
  • Vijay Rawat
  • Matthew Rockloff

Abstract

Prior estimates of the population-level impact of gambling have relied on economic costings. Recent work has derived disability weights for the Problem Gambling Severity Index, which measure per-person impact of gambling on quality of life on a scale of zero to one. This provided scope for the present study to calculate the ‘burden of gambling harm’, which captures the aggregate impact of harms arising from gambling on quality of life in a population. Gambling-related harm was associated with 101,675 years of life lost in Victoria, Australia: approximately two-thirds that of alcohol use and dependence, and major depressive disorder. Problem gamblers suffer more individually (disability weight = .44) compared to those in moderate (.29) and low (.13) risk categories. Nevertheless, moderate and low-risk gamblers account for 85% of population-level harm, due to greater prevalence of these groups. Overall, the scale of gambling-related harm is large relative to other significant health issues, with milder yet non-negligible harm accruing to a relatively broad segment of the gambling population. The article suggests that the tendency to conflate the (typically low) prevalence of problem gambling with total gambling impact is misleading, and argues for a broader population-health based measure.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Browne & Nancy Greer & Vijay Rawat & Matthew Rockloff, 2017. "A population-level metric for gambling-related harm," International Gambling Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 163-175, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:intgms:v:17:y:2017:i:2:p:163-175
    DOI: 10.1080/14459795.2017.1304973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14459795.2017.1304973
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14459795.2017.1304973?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rimal, Retina & Shepherd, Robin-Marie & Curley, Louise Elizabeth & Sundram, Frederick, 2023. "Perspectives from gambling expert stakeholders in relation to electronic gaming machines in New Zealand," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    2. Jane Oakes & Rene Pols & Sharon Lawn, 2020. "The Frantic Seeking of Credit during Poker Machine Problem Gambling: A Public Health Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-12, July.
    3. Matthew Browne & Vijay Rawat & Catherine Tulloch & Cailem Murray-Boyle & Matthew Rockloff, 2021. "The Evolution of Gambling-Related Harm Measurement: Lessons from the Last Decade," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-14, April.
    4. Nerilee Hing & Matthew Browne & Alex M T Russell & Matthew Rockloff & Vijay Rawat & Fiona Nicoll & Garry Smith, 2019. "Avoiding gambling harm: An evidence-based set of safe gambling practices for consumers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:intgms:v:17:y:2017:i:2:p:163-175. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIGS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.