The Social Impacts of Gambling

Gambling is an activity where individuals bet something of value on a random event with the hope of winning a prize. The event may be anything from playing a slot machine to betting on the outcome of a sporting event. While gambling is fun for many people, it can become a problem when an individual starts losing more than they win. This can have a significant impact on the gambler and their family. If you feel that your gambling is getting out of hand, you can find help and support through a number of organisations.

The main reason why gambling is so addictive is because it offers an opportunity for people to experience a “natural high” in a safe and social setting. This is due to the fact that it requires risk taking and an element of luck in order to win. However, there is also a lot of hype in the media that portrays gambling as a low risk, high reward entertainment choice – this is not the case. Statistically, the odds are always against you in any casino game and the chances of winning are extremely slim.

While there are positive aspects of gambling, the majority of people who gamble do so for financial gain and to satisfy their curiosity about how they would be able to manage with large amounts of money. In addition, gambling provides a social environment where people can meet friends and socialise. This is especially true for those who play card games where the players can interact and talk about their strategy. Moreover, gambling has been shown to create a sense of belonging to a group and is a common pastime for people with low incomes, who spend a larger proportion of their income on it than richer households do [3].

In the past, studies have concentrated on examining only the economic costs and benefits of gambling, which are relatively easy to quantify. This has left a gap in the research and ignores the social impacts of gambling. Williams et al. [32] define social impacts as those that affect the personal and interpersonal level and cannot be measured in monetary terms, while Walker & Barnett [40] define them as those that aggregate societal real wealth (or the equivalent), are borne by the whole of society and benefit no one in particular.

These social impacts include the negative effects on relationships and on a person’s quality of life. They can be seen at the personal and interpersonal levels (for example, the financial strain caused by gambling on a gambler’s significant others) and at the community/society level (for example, the increase in housing prices as a result of casino developments). In a public health approach to gambling, these social impacts are also measured using disability weights, which are based on an individual’s impairment and impact on his or her quality of life.