Legalized gambling is exploding globally. What policies can limit its harms?

Turbocharged by the internet and mobile technology, legalized gambling has exploded across the globe, leaving behind ruined lives, broken families and financial hardships, and should now be classified as a major public health concern. A four-year study by a public health commission on gambling convened by The Lancet, the respected British journal of medicine, found that net global losses by gamblers could exceed $700 billion by the year 2028, and that 80% of countries now allow some form of legal gambling. But HKS Professor Malcolm Sparrow, a leading scholar on regulating societal harms, says that in reality the percentage of countries where gambling is practiced is closer to 100% because internet- and mobile-based gambling—often using cryptocurrencies—can easily circumvent borders. Among the commission's more concerning findings is that a significant portion of virtual gamblers are teenagers, and that more than 1 in 4 teens are at risk of becoming compulsive or problem gamblers. Sparrow tells PolicyCast host Ralph Ranalli that the harms are also widespread, since the suffering from each problem gambler also affects on average six to eight people around them—ranging from spouses to relatives to friends to employers and co-workers. Sparrow says the commission has identified a number of policy solutions to mitigate the growing fallout from gambling expansion, ranging from limiting the speed and intensity of virtual gambling products to prohibiting gambling with credit cards and banning gaming companies from offering loans.

Policy Recommendations from The Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling:

• Push governments to define gambling as primarily a public health issue, and prioritize health and wellbeing over economic gains when crafting gambling policies.
• Adopt effective regulation in all countries—regardless of whether or not they have legalized gambling—including limiting promotion and marketing, providing accessible support for betting-related harms, and denormalizing gambling through public awareness campaigns.
• Create independent regulators in jurisdictions where gambling is legal to enforce protections including safeguards for young people, consumer protections, and mandatory limits on gambling activities.
• Shield development of gambling policies, research, and treatment from industry influence through a shift to independent funding sources.
• At the international level, require UN entities and intergovernmental organizations to address gambling harms as part of broader health and wellbeing strategies.
• Create an international alliance of stakeholders to lead advocacy, research, and collaboration on gambling-related issues.
• Adopt a resolution recognizing the public health impacts of gambling at the World Health Assembly.

Episode Notes:

Malcolm K. Sparrow is professor of the practice of public management at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is faculty chair of the school’s executive education program on strategic management of regulatory and enforcement agencies. He is the offer of several books, including “The Regulatory Craft: Controlling Risks, Solving Problems, and Managing Compliance,” and “License to Steal: How Fraud Bleeds America's Health Care System.” An expert in regulatory management, his research interests include regulatory and enforcement strategy, fraud control, corruption control, and operational risk management. Before coming to HKS, he served 10 years with the British Police Service, where he rose to the rank of detective chief inspector and conducted internal affairs investigations, commanded a tactical firearms unit, and gained extensive experience with criminal investigation. A mathematician and patent-holding inventor in the area of computerized fingerprint analysis, he earned an MA in mathematics from Cambridge University, an MPA from the Kennedy School, and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Kent.

Ralph Ranalli of the HKS Office of Communications and Public Affairs is the host, producer, and editor of HKS PolicyCast. A former journalist, public television producer, and entrepreneur, he holds an AB in Political Science from UCLA and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.

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