The 2020 WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission Report includes a section about commercialized gambling and its impact on kids. It is a major achievement to have gambling in this type of report appearing alongside other unhealthy commodity industries.
You read the report and the highlighted sections dealing with commercialized gambling here: 2020 UNICEF and WHO Report referencing gambling
They max-out credit cards, drain their savings and checking accounts, seek payday loans, borrow money from relatives and friends, steal from employers and write bad checks. On rare occasions, they even rob banks. On average, they are $34,078 in debt by the time they seek assistance.
These are characteristics of those who called the helpline at the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling in 2017. The council received 12,674 calls for help last year. The heavy financial losses are a catalyst to other serious problems. Gamblers have reported thoughts or attempts of suicide, bankruptcies and falling hopelessly behind on house and utility payments.
This Washington Post story looks at the intended use for lottery revenues in each state. On average, lotteries accounted for 2 percent of overall state revenues, according to an analysis of Census data from researchers at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a State University of New York policy think tank.
Lower-income Americans overwhelmingly engage in other forms of state-sanctioned gambling, studies show. Increased levels of lottery play have been linked with certain sections of the U.S. population — men, African-Americans, Native Americans, and those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods, according to one 2011 study of over 5,000 people published in the Journal of Gambling Studies.
This study in The Australian Journal of Public Health explored children’s awareness of sports betting advertising and how this advertising may influence children’s attitudes, product knowledge and desire to try sports betting.
Results: Children recalled in detail sports betting advertisements that they had seen, with humor the most engaging appeal strategy. They were also able to describe other specific appeal strategies and link these strategies to betting brands. Many children described how advertisements demonstrated how someone would place a bet, with some children recalling the detailed technical language associated with betting.
Conclusions: Children had detailed recall of sports betting advertisements and an extensive knowledge of sports betting products and terminology.
An academic paper written by PhD candidates at the University of Illinois took a closer look at the expansion of video gambling machines in the state and their relation to crime.
According to the paper, “increased access to video gambling leads to a statistically significant rise in violent and property crimes in Chicago.”
More from the paper:
On average, being near at least one video gambling establishment is associated with a 7.5% and 6.7% increase in violent and property crime. These estimates control for potential confounders, including access to riverboat casinos, community area specific trends, and demographic controls. Reassuringly, these effects are strongest in the block groups closest to video gambling establishments. The effects decrease as gambling access declines, becoming zero after moving three census block groups away, and remaining at zero thereafter.
This study by the Nova Scotia Department of Health found that only 4% of net gambling machine (or so-called “video lottery”) revenue was derived from “casual” players, even though they comprise 75% of players. Meanwhile, 96% of the revenue was derived from under 6% of the population who were classified as “regular gamblers.” About 16% of these regular gamblers were “problem gamblers” and they alone generated 53% of machine revenues even though they make up under 1% of the total population.
The Columbia University School of Public Health, one of America’s leading public health programs, published a national investigation into the massive public health impacts of government-sponsored casinos and lotteries. Led by Elaine Meyer, this must-share article spotlights how predatory gambling is harming millions of Americans and the communities they live in.
This 2005 United States Treasury Report reveals how casinos are used by criminals to launder counterfeit money and large currency notes. “A constant threat at casinos is insiders taking advantage of their position either to steal or assist others with money laundering. ICE recently charged six people, including a tribal leader, with attempting to steal $900,000 from a Native American casino. Among the charges are conspiracy, theft, and money laundering.”
This paper examines United States lottery revenues and finds an increase in lottery activity during weeks in which transfer payments (i.e. Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Social Security, disability, etc.) are distributed. Revenues from state lotteries are also shown to increase during the week transfer payments are distributed. The timing of the increase in lottery purchases suggests a portion of the transfer payments is used to purchase lottery tickets.