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Self-exclusion from gambling—a measure of covid-19 impact on gambling in a highly online-based gambling market?

Håkansson, Anders LU ; Widinghoff, Carolina LU and Berge, Jonas LU (2021) In International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(14).
Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, and related changes of the gambling market, have been suspected to affect the risk of problem gambling. Despite media attention and political concern with this risk, study findings hitherto have been mixed. Voluntary self-exclusion from gambling was introduced on a national level in Sweden as a harm reduction tool in 2019, and this self-exclusion service in Sweden is a rare example of such an official, nationwide, multi-operator system. The present study aimed to evaluate whether short-term self-exclusion patterns were affected by different phases of COVID-19-related impacts on gambling markets in 2020. During the lock-down of sports in the spring months of 2020, three-month self-exclusion was unaffected, and... (More)

The COVID-19 pandemic, and related changes of the gambling market, have been suspected to affect the risk of problem gambling. Despite media attention and political concern with this risk, study findings hitherto have been mixed. Voluntary self-exclusion from gambling was introduced on a national level in Sweden as a harm reduction tool in 2019, and this self-exclusion service in Sweden is a rare example of such an official, nationwide, multi-operator system. The present study aimed to evaluate whether short-term self-exclusion patterns were affected by different phases of COVID-19-related impacts on gambling markets in 2020. During the lock-down of sports in the spring months of 2020, three-month self-exclusion was unaffected, and one-month self-exclusion appeared to increase, though not more than in a recent period prior to COVID-19. Despite large differences in sports betting practices between women and men, self-exclusion patterns during COVID-19 were not apparently gender-specific. Altogether, self-exclusion from gambling, to date, does not appear to be affected by COVID-19-related changes in society, in contrast with beliefs about such changes producing greater help-seeking behavior in gamblers. Limitations are discussed, including the fact that in a recently introduced system, seasonality aspects and the autocorrelated nature of the data made substantial statistical measures unfeasible.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Behavioral addiction, COVID-19, Gambling disorder, Problem gambling, Self-exclusion
in
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
volume
18
issue
14
article number
7367
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85109321660
  • pmid:34299817
ISSN
1661-7827
DOI
10.3390/ijerph18147367
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2623f247-0b00-42ca-81ab-7d5c512df91c
date added to LUP
2021-08-20 14:10:18
date last changed
2024-06-01 14:13:26
@article{2623f247-0b00-42ca-81ab-7d5c512df91c,
  abstract     = {{<p>The COVID-19 pandemic, and related changes of the gambling market, have been suspected to affect the risk of problem gambling. Despite media attention and political concern with this risk, study findings hitherto have been mixed. Voluntary self-exclusion from gambling was introduced on a national level in Sweden as a harm reduction tool in 2019, and this self-exclusion service in Sweden is a rare example of such an official, nationwide, multi-operator system. The present study aimed to evaluate whether short-term self-exclusion patterns were affected by different phases of COVID-19-related impacts on gambling markets in 2020. During the lock-down of sports in the spring months of 2020, three-month self-exclusion was unaffected, and one-month self-exclusion appeared to increase, though not more than in a recent period prior to COVID-19. Despite large differences in sports betting practices between women and men, self-exclusion patterns during COVID-19 were not apparently gender-specific. Altogether, self-exclusion from gambling, to date, does not appear to be affected by COVID-19-related changes in society, in contrast with beliefs about such changes producing greater help-seeking behavior in gamblers. Limitations are discussed, including the fact that in a recently introduced system, seasonality aspects and the autocorrelated nature of the data made substantial statistical measures unfeasible.</p>}},
  author       = {{Håkansson, Anders and Widinghoff, Carolina and Berge, Jonas}},
  issn         = {{1661-7827}},
  keywords     = {{Behavioral addiction; COVID-19; Gambling disorder; Problem gambling; Self-exclusion}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  number       = {{14}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health}},
  title        = {{Self-exclusion from gambling—a measure of covid-19 impact on gambling in a highly online-based gambling market?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147367}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/ijerph18147367}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}