Internet gambling is a rapidly growing phenomenon, increasing in types of games and gambling opportunities, number of sites, owners and jurisdictions. In response, participation and revenue generated by Internet gambling is also rising, along with the incidence of Internet gambling problems. In the unregulated environment it is difficult for players to be assured appropriate safeguards to prote...

AIM To provide an overview on the nature and importance of public health approaches to the global expansion of commercial gambling. METHOD Three key areas of public health activity are examined: harm minimization, health promotion and the political determinants for change. FINDINGS The rapid proliferation of gambling experienced in many countries is driven by the commercial development of n...

Problem gambling is becoming an increasingly widespread and damaging social and health problem. As opportunities for gambling become more accessible, especially through lotteries and electronic gaming machines, it is likely that more people will develop serious gambling problems. Given the worldwide increasing spending on gambling activities and the increasing number of problem gamblers, it is ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence of problem gambling in a population of youths in Switzerland and to determine its association with other potentially addictive behaviours. METHODS Cross-sectional survey including 1,102 participants in the first and second year of post-compulsory education, reporting gambling, socio-demographics, internet use and substance use. For three categories of gambli...

There is a paucity of longitudinal investigations of gambling behavior in the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood. We conducted a longitudinal investigation of the associations and patterns of change between mental health symptoms and gambling behavior. A representative sample of Norwegians completed questionnaires containing demographic, mental health, and gambling measures at ag...

AIMS To investigate gambling expenditure and its relationship with socio-demographics, health-related correlates and past-year gambling behaviour. DESIGN Cross-sectional population survey. SETTING Population-based survey in Finland. PARTICIPANTS Finnish people aged 15-74 years drawn randomly from the Population Information System. The participants in this study were past-year gamblers wit...

BACKGROUND Pathologic gambling prevalence seems to be increasing as opportunities for gambling increase. Prevalence may be different in a primary care setting compared with population-based studies. OBJECTIVES To determine the gambling disorder prevalence in a primary care setting and to investigate associations between gambling disorders and proximity to a casino, substance abuse, health rat...

BACKGROUND Gambling has quickly emerged as an important global public health issue. With new technologies used to develop high intensity gambling products and promotions aimed at driving consumption, public health organisations and researchers, community groups, and politicians have argued for a range of regulatory and education measures aimed at reducing gambling harm. However, there has been ...

Background and Objectives: Few studies have assessed pathological gambling in Switzerland. We employed the National Opinion Research Center DSM Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS) to assess prevalence of gambling problems in Germanand Italian-speaking Switzerland. Methods: A random sample of 4997 individuals participated in a computer-assisted telephone interview in 2007 and 1388 of the individ...

Previous research has demonstrated that local area characteristics (such as disadvantage and gambling outlet density) and genetic risk factors are associated with gambling involvement and disordered gambling. These 2 lines of research were brought together in the present study by examining the extent to which genetic contributions to individual differences in gambling involvement and disorder c...