Gambling harm prevention and harm reduction in online environments: a call for action

Harm Reduction Journal

Perspective

Virve Marionneau¹  Nina Karlsson²  Heidi Ruohio² 

[1]Faculty of Social Sciences, Centre for Research on Addiction, Control, and Governance, University of Helsinki, Unioninkatu 33, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

[2]Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Mannerheimintie 166, 00271, Helsinki, Finland

关键词: Gambling;    Online;    Ecosystem;    Harm prevention;    Harm reduction;    Public health;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12954-023-00828-4

 received in 2023-04-26, accepted in 2023-07-16,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundGambling is increasingly offered and consumed in online and mobile environments. The digitalisation of the gambling industry poses new challenges on harm prevention and harm reduction. The digital environment differs from traditional, land-based gambling environments. It increases many risk-factors in gambling, including availability, ease-of-access, but also game characteristics such as speed and intensity. Furthermore, data collected on those gambling in digital environments makes gambling offer increasingly personalised and targeted.Main resultsThis paper discusses how harm prevention and harm reduction efforts need to address gambling in online environments. We review existing literature on universal, selective, and indicated harm reduction and harm prevention efforts for online gambling and discuss ways forward. The discussion shows that there are several avenues forward for online gambling harm prevention and reduction at each of the universal, selective, and indicated levels. No measure is likely to be sufficient on its own and multi-modal as well as multi-level interventions are needed. Harm prevention and harm reduction measures online also differ from traditional land-based efforts. Online gambling providers utilise a variety of strategies to enable, market, and personalise their products using data and the wider online ecosystem.ConclusionWe argue that these same tools and channels should also be used for preventive work to better prevent and reduce the public health harms caused by online gambling.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023