Gambling Impacts

Gambling is a common pastime for many people, offering excitement, fun and rewards. Some people even use it to help them cope with stress or depression. However, like any activity, gambling can have risks. It’s important to recognize when gambling is becoming a problem for yourself or your loved ones and seek treatment.

Some people are genetically predisposed to thrill-seeking behaviours and impulsivity, which can increase their risk for gambling problems. Some may also be at risk for gambling problems due to certain medical conditions, including brain disorders and mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression. Certain medications can also interfere with the way your brain processes reward information and controls impulses.

Gambling can have both financial and social impacts on individuals, families, communities and society as a whole. These impacts are categorized into three classes: Financial, labor and health/wellbeing, and social. Financial impacts include changes in personal and family finances, such as a change in household income. Labor impacts, which refer to the effects of gambling on work, can include changes in productivity and performance at work, job gains and losses, and unemployment. The societal/community class of impact includes all others that are not gamblers, such as friends and family members, and community impacts, which refer to the effect of gambling on a local environment. Social and societal impacts are difficult to measure, and so are often neglected in calculations of the economic benefits and costs of gambling.