A process model for responding to casino gambling harm experienced by Chinese migrants

With commercial casinos proliferating over the past two decades, gambling-related harm has attracted attention in terms of both research and development of treatment strategies. A problematic relationship with gambling has major consequences for gamblers, families, communities, and society. This paper aims to present a better understanding of Chinese migrants’ experiences of responding to casino gambling harm in New Zealand using an interpretive phenomenological approach. Sixteen recent Chinese migrants were interviewed: eight people who self-identified as gambling problematically and eight affected family members. Data analysis incorporated a thematic approach involving multiple readings of interview transcripts and iterative processing of developing themes. The key findings are organized into a model involving four stages: misconnection (pathways into excessive gambling), disconnecting (moving away from casino gambling), reconnection (settling into their new social environment), and rebuilding a ‘natural life’ (a Chinese cultural conception of recovery). This process model helps understanding the Chinese migrants’ experience of responding to gambling harm in a broad social-cultural-historical context.