The Social Impact of Gambling
Gambling is any activity in which wealth changes hands on the basis of chance and involves a degree of risk to the gambler. It includes betting, fruit machines, lotteries, casino games and scratchcards. Gambling is distinguished from other activities that involve creativity and useful skills, such as business, agriculture, and craftsmanship by the fact that it involves no such inputs and instead relies on luck and the desire for gain. This makes it morally wrong, in terms of the Bible’s teaching that man should trust God for his or her needs (Proverbs 30:8,9). Moreover, gambling encourages escapism and promotes superstition. It glorifies chance and denies God’s sovereignty, as is evident from the fact that it often disproportionately affects poor people who cannot afford to lose.
Research into the causes of gambling problems has shown that some people are genetically predisposed to thrill-seeking behaviour and impulsivity. However, the social context in which gambling occurs also plays an important role. For example, some communities view gambling as a normal pastime, which may make it harder to recognize that it is problematic. This can especially be true for children, who are not always able to distinguish between a normal and an unhealthy form of gambling.
Another way in which the social impact of gambling can be measured is by examining it in terms of costs and benefits. These are usually categorized into three classes, namely financial, labor and health and well-being impacts. They can manifest at personal, interpersonal or community/society levels and may be long-term or recurrent in nature.
It is difficult to calculate the exact cost of a particular type of gambling because the various impacts are intangible by nature. Nevertheless, they are still significant. In order to measure these impacts, researchers have attempted to develop a common methodology for assessing them. Some of these methodologies include the use of quality of life weights, which are used in alcohol and drug research, or monetary values assigned to intangible impacts.
Some of the negative impacts of gambling are related to its social effects, such as increasing the number of problem gamblers and affecting the incomes of workers in the gambling industry. This is why it is important to examine the impact of gambling in a broader social context. Other impacts that are not measurable in monetary terms include the loss of social capital and the impact on public services. These impacts must be taken into account when calculating the overall cost of gambling.
