Abstract
Gambling: a neglected public health issue
Highlights
Today, in The Lancet Public Health, Heather Wardle (University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK), Louisa Degenhardt (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia), and Shekhar Saxena (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA) announce the launch of the journal’s inaugural Commission on Gambling—a scientific inquiry and response to an urgent, neglected, understudied, and worsening public health predicament
According to WHO, the prevalence of gambling disorders among adults varies between 0·1% and 5·8%
The COVID-19 pandemic response, bringing lockdowns and unprecedented restrictions in people’s lives, could act as a catalyst, intensifying gambling behaviours by increasing time spent at home and time spent online
Summary
In The Lancet Public Health, Heather Wardle (University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK), Louisa Degenhardt (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia), and Shekhar Saxena (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA) announce the launch of the journal’s inaugural Commission on Gambling—a scientific inquiry and response to an urgent, neglected, understudied, and worsening public health predicament. Gambling is not an ordinary activity: it is a health-harming addictive behaviour, recently recognised in the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-5). Gambling is a source of potentially serious and wide-ranging harms, affecting an individual’s health, wealth, and relationships.
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