112
Leading academic Professor Heather Wardle of the University of Glasgow has opened up a new front in the crusade against the gambling industry with a paper that invites the governments of the world to treat gambling as a major public health issue. Wardle and colleagues from around the world, including leading academics in Australia, India…
4 comments
Appreciate Dan’s context on this. Helps make sense of an extremely dense document.
On stages around the world, I constantly hear panelists talking about taking the stigma out of gambling and how creating a stigma around problem gambling stops players seeking help. Surely the “de-normalisation of gambling” as advocated for in this paper, just builds the stigma?
As per, Dan’s analysis is spot on. A more cynical mind may feel that the prevalence of gambling harm is being exaggerated to justify the ask for exorbitant amounts of funding whilst concurrently the campaign to exclude expert voices from the collective effort to reduce harm is aimed at securing a greater slice of that pie. Time will tell, if our treatment services become overrun in the near future and we are at capacity with all the NHS clinics bursting at the seams, then what can I say, I’m sorry!
Tbh I would just like to see more balance…. and that will involve speaking to the industry. The whole concept of ‘research on the gambling industry without speaking to the gambling industry’ makes absolutely no sense to me.