Gambling is an activity in which a person stakes something of value (usually money) on an event that has some element of chance and offers the potential for a prize. It is an activity that involves risk and choice and is conducted in a variety of ways including lotteries, scratch tickets, cards, slots, machines, races, sports events, dice, and even on the Internet. Although gambling is a popular pastime and can be very entertaining, for many people it becomes a serious problem that affects their life. Several studies have shown that two million Americans are affected by compulsive gambling, and many of these people have been unable to control their behavior despite efforts to do so. Gambling is generally considered a socially acceptable activity and it is legal in most states.
There are many types of gambling activities, some are regulated and others are not. Regulated forms of gambling include state or provincial lotteries and casinos. Non-regulated forms of gambling include card games, sport betting, and skill based activities such as poker. Teenagers often engage in both regulated and non-regulated forms of gambling. They may participate in a state or province lottery, and they also frequently participate in other forms of informal gambling such as dice, keno, and sports betting.
Despite the fact that gambling is widely available, it is not well understood. This is partly due to the fact that it is a complex behaviour and is often influenced by a wide range of factors such as family, peers, and culture. Furthermore, the fact that it is a complex behaviour makes it difficult to measure and compare results across surveys.
A number of measures have been developed to measure gambling harm, but these are limited in their ability to provide a clear picture of the impact of gambling on individuals and society. Most gambling harm measures are based on diagnostic criteria or behavioural symptoms, and these tend to focus on the presence of problems rather than the broader implications of gambling. This type of measurement is problematic because it is not consistent with a public health approach to public health, and it can lead to inaccurate or misleading conclusions.
A better definition of harm is needed to facilitate the development of more appropriate measures. The current paper aims to fill this gap by reviewing the evidence and developing a conceptual framework that includes a catalogue of harms and their impact on quality of life, which is then organised into a taxonomy to facilitate future research and development of more suitable measures. The definition is derived from four separate methodologies: a literature review, focus groups and interviews with people who gamble and their affected others, and an analysis of gambling-related posts on a public forum. This approach broadens our understanding of gambling-related harms and provides a basis for future research that will be consistent with standard public health approaches to measuring harms, and allows for the influence of comorbidities to be taken into account.