Assigning responsibility for gambling-related harm: scrutinizing processes of direct and indirect consumer responsibilization of gamblers in Sweden

Abstract

This study is an inquiry into how actors in the Swedish gambling industry, gambling problem prevention and support structures articulate responsibility for the problems that arise from gambling. A main point made in the study is that responsibility for the gambling-related harm is actively constructed and reproduced in a hegemonic way that situates the main responsibility for the emergence and handling of gambling-related harm on the individual gambler and that relies heavily on the individual’s capacity to control and adjust his/her consumption to prevent gambling related harm. Drawing on extensive ethnographical fieldwork on responsible gambling practices in the Swedish context, the author brings attention to the often-unproblematized view of contemporary responsible gambling measures, and the need to develop a self-reflexive critical analysis of the ways in which responsibility is divided and assigned in this politicized market and wider policy field. As a conceptual contribution, an analytical distinction is suggested between measures of direct responsibilization (teaching and training gamblers to be responsible) and measures of indirect responsibilization (teaching and training intermediaries in the market, such as gambling agents and support association staff, to relinquish responsibility on behalf of the gambling consumer). The results indicate that such a distinction is fruitful for a nuanced understanding of contemporary responsibility policies and practices.