Reflections on Responsibility

Abstract

In recent years, discourses of responsibility have, along with the proliferation of gambling and problem gambling itself, become increasingly prevalent throughout Western nations. The concept, which originates in notions of power and morality, has been appropriated by a range of stakeholders who utilize it in particular ways. In a pragmatic sense, ideas about responsibility are often generated and fostered through strategic alliances between, for example, government, the gambling industry, community groups, and treatment providers whose interests can be made to coalesce around this central theme. For instance, governments have moved to formulate responsible gambling policies, while some sectors of the gambling industry have attempted to demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility by, for example, not encouraging excessive play and providing realistic estimates of the chances of losing (or at least by paying lip service to those principles). At the same time, treatment agencies provide advice and information that is designed to encourage the development of responsible, self-regulating behaviour in their clients. Meanwhile, a range of organizations have come to identify themselves in terms of this increasingly dominant discourse, including, for example, the Responsible Gambling Council in Canada, the National Center for Responsible Gaming in the USA, and the Responsibility in Gambling Trust in the UK.