HomeGambling IndustryHarvard panel warns: gambling boom taking a toll on adults and adolescents

Harvard panel warns: gambling boom taking a toll on adults and adolescents

RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING03 Feb 2025
3 min. read
Gambling

A Zoom panel has sought to shed more light on the toll that mass gambling legalization in the United States and elsewhere is taking on the population. Adolescents and "emerging adults" are both at risk, the digital meet-up’s participants suggested.

Panel on responsible gambling warns against the changing nature of gambling

Hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and moderated by Laura Haefeli, a WBZ-TV journalist, the panel sought the better explain and articulate the current reach of sports gambling, with a particular focus in the United States where 2.5m people are already experiencing a severe gambling disorder.

Chan School Adjunct Professor of Global Mental Health Shekhar Saxena spoke about the way the gambling experience has become "seamless" in the way it onboards new customers and allows them to quickly get started, thus making it more dangerous.

"Tech makes sure the experience is seamless; the gambling industry make it tantalizing; and the financial industry makes it possible to put your money in with just a click or a tap," Professor Saxena said.

Gambling issues have surged over the past years and this can be specifically tied to the rise of sports betting and casinos’ profile in popular culture, as well as making these products more accessible. Originally legalized on the basis that not legalizing gambling would breed societal ills, this stipulation is now being assailed by the growing number of people who have become addicted or have experienced gambling-related harm.

LiaNower, who is Director of the Center for Gambling Studies and Co-Director of the Addiction Counselor Training Certificate Program at the Rutgers University School of Social Work, noted that the groups to be the most at risk are "emerging adults and adolescents."

Status is a diminishing predictor of gambling-related harm

Her colleague, Director of the Massachusetts Office of Problem Gambling Services Victor Ortiz, warned that while gambling harm can affect minorities and lower social strata disproportionately, the fact is that people of higher economic and educational status are increasingly at risk of becoming addicted and experiencing severe harm.

All in all, the panel has agreed that stricter controls on gambling are needed and they should come from a centralized source of authority – such as the federal government. AS Co-Director of the UCLA Problem Gambling Studies Program Timothy Fong has cautioned, the new way gambling is introduced to people changes "the fabric of our bodies and minds."


Image credit: Unsplash.com

03 Feb 2025
3 min. read
Comments
Nobody has commented on this article yet. Be the first one to leave a comment.

Send us a tip

Would you like us to cover a specific story? Send it to us!

Latest gambling news right in your inbox

Subscribe to our newsletter and receive a weekly dose of the most important events from the gambling industry.
Stay up to date
Would you like to be notified about latest gambling news and updates?
Allow