Lancet Report Suggests Nearly 450M Suffer From Gambling Disorder Globally

A new report from the medical journal The Lancet analyzes the impact that problem gambling continues to have on the global population, and the study’s conclusion highlights the negative effects of the gaming industry’s involvement with gambling research.

Lancet Public Health Commission consulted experts on 299 studies on the prevalence of specific gambling activities

The Oct. 24 commission consulted experts across several subjects in order to study gambling, including 299 different prevalence studies. The commission anticipates the global gambling industry will see nearly $700 billion in net losses by bettors by 2028.

“This Lancet Public Health Commission should mark the beginning of a serious and sustained effort to apply public health logic as countries and communities respond to the rapidly increasing threat of gambling harms,” the report reads.

“We acknowledge that implementing these recommendations might take time [and] will not be easy. … [It] will require sustained effort and cooperation from multiple international actors. We hope to establish a clear direction for future action that will lead to effective policy design and implementation.”

Industry’s involvement with gambling research is unregulated

The commission concluded that the gaming industry’s involvement with gambling research is uncontrolled. This allows gaming operators to frame compulsive gambling in a way that benefits them whenever they see fit.

“The gambling industry also exerts considerable influence over research into gambling and gambling harms. … [This] helps it to retain control of the framing and messaging surrounding these issues,” the commission said.

“Framing the problem in this way and narrowly focusing policy attention on a small subset of the people who gamble draws attention away from industry practices and corporate behavior. We must also seriously examine the structures and systems that govern the design, provision, and promotion of gambling products.”

About 448.7 million people are negatively impacted by gambling

Furthermore, while structural problems that impact the efficacy of addressing problem gambling were documented in the report, the commission also cited a few projections on prevalancy rates.

The report concluded that 5.5% of women and 11.9% of men experience risk gambling, which it defined as “occasional experience of at least one behavioral symptom or adverse consequence from gambling.”

Extrapolating those rates to a global population level, that means about 448.7 million people are negatively impacted by gambling. Of that amount, roughly 80 million adults have experienced problem gambling.

Overall, gambling poses a threat to public health, according to the commission. The experts in the report are recommending to regulators to strengthen “gambling industry regulation” for gamblers.