Gambling is an activity where people place a stake in something that has a chance of being lost. This can be done in many different ways, including lottery, bingo, casino games, horse racing, sports betting and scratch cards.
Gambling has both positive and negative impacts on health and wellbeing. These can be observed at the personal, interpersonal and community/society level (see Fig. 1). In the case of harmful gambling behaviour, these impact on individuals may lead to depression, loss of family/friendships and even job losses. However, there are also a number of positive effects such as increased leisure time and social integration among older adults, and the pleasure that is derived from winning a prize in a game.
At a community/society level, gambling can have negative impacts on other sectors of the economy such as recreation/amusement and retail businesses, particularly small ventures. It can also affect charitable organisations and groups that receive donations from the public through gambling revenues. It can also lead to increases in property and other living prices, and declines in community cohesion.
Research into the psychological and social effects of gambling is often difficult to conduct as gamblers can be very private about their actions. The behaviour of problem gamblers can be masked by denial, guilt and shame and may be influenced by a range of factors such as mental health, culture, environment and upbringing. This makes it important to examine the wider effects of gambling on society, in addition to those affecting individual gamblers.