Problem gambling within the context of poverty: a scoping review

The burden of gambling problems is felt more strongly among people who experience poverty. A small but emerging body of research is developing with no identified reviews exploring the scope of the academic literature on the confluence of poverty and gambling problems. The Arksey and O’Malley scoping study framework was used to map research on this multifaceted topic. We synthesized findings of 27 studies, spanning several national contexts on prevalence of problem gambling and associations of it with poverty. Findings indicated that gambling problems were associated with several poverty measures including employment/unemployment, housing instability, homelessness, low income, and neighborhood disadvantage. The complex interplay of gambling problems with social and health issues emerged in qualitative papers. Relatively few studies explored the connection between poverty and gambling problems despite higher prevalence of gambling problems in this population. Those experiencing both concerns face myriad challenges necessitating surveillance and treatment within vulnerable populations. Further research should explore pathways to gambling problems and poverty and also the associative nature and temporal sequencing of the two phenomena. Global awareness on the topic from a research and clinical/community service perspective is necessary.