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The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its fact sheet about gambling, offering new data and recommendations on how to mitigate gambling harms.
Regulatory bodies and governments across the United States have already deployed some of the WHO’s suggestions but others remain theoretical. Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) Administrator Marcus Fruchter shared with PlayUSA how existing structures already comply with some of the recommendations and discussed a more controversial subject.
WHO’s gambling fact sheet stresses potential for harm
The WHO’s fact sheet details who is at risk for harm from gambling and the effects of those harms. For example, it estimates that “for every person who gambles at high-risk levels, an average of six others (usually non-gamblers) are affected.”
According to the sheet, those harms “include financial stress, relationship breakdown, family violence, mental illness, and suicide.” In assessing high-risk status, WHO lists “people experiencing significant life events including separation, retirement, injury, or the death of a loved one.”
The WHO adds that “social stressors such as poverty, discrimination, or other disadvantages also increase risks.” The sheet mentions three primary factors related to these potential harms.
WHO points to access, marketing, and regulatory issues
The WHO fact sheet does not state that access to legal and regulated online casinos causes harm. Rather, the sheet says that easy accessibility and heavy promotion increase the frequency of gaming and normalize that activity.
Additionally, the WHO levies several criticisms of existing regulatory structures worldwide. Those include:
- A lack of transparency about how games work
- Licensees misleading players with game components that encourage longer and more frequent playing sessions
- Using responsible gambling messaging as a “dark nudge” to keep players interested
At the same time, the fact sheet cites regulatory bodies and strong regulations as key to prevention of harm.
Fact sheet’s suggestions to limit damage
The WHO focuses on seven measures to prevent harm from gambling. Most of them would require action from licensees but also regulators if not lawmakers in the US to prioritize.
One example is “ending gambling advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of sports and other cultural activities.”
Fruchter stressed that he cannot speculate about future action by the IGB or the Illinois legislature. However, he adds that in September, the IGB enacted new rules related to the marketing of gambling.
Illinois isn’t the only state to recently tighten restrictions on gambling advertisements. In March 2023, New York extended its rules for sports wagering ads to social media content.
Legislators in Louisiana and Ohio have also proposed new restrictions on marketing by gambling companies. To the WHO’s point, though, none of them come close to the total bans that the fact sheet calls for.
In a related item, the WHO also calls for “counter-messaging that conveys warnings about harms associated with gambling products.”
Fruchter pointed to the IGB’s “Are You Really Winning” campaign, which acts as counter-messaging stressing the availability of resources and treatment for people who are concerned about their gambling activity. Similar campaigns are common across most US jurisdictions that have legalized and regulated online gambling.
Other measures would require more action in places like Illinois.
Universal registration recommendation echoes other literature
The WHO echoes a recent report of The Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling in several ways, including recommendations for harm reduction. In terms of more substantial efforts that are not yet taking shape across the US, the WHO fact sheet and The Lancet report are nearly identical.
These measures include instituting universal account registration with a pre-commitment to deposit and spending limits for players. In other words, the state would handle player registration for gaming and mandate universal limits on how much players could deposit and risk.
While there are some US states where there is a de facto universal registration for regulated online gambling like Delaware and Rhode Island due to the fact that both of those states have only licensed one operator, the operators maintain those systems, not the states. Moreover, they do not impose universal loss limits or maximum bet caps.
In states like Illinois where multiple licensees offer online gambling, consolidating registration would be a large undertaking. It would require significant cooperation if not investment from licensees.
The WHO addresses research into gambling in its fact sheet. That’s another way in which putting the recommendations into practice may represent a substantial shift from the status quo.
Divorcing research from industry influence could be heavy lift
A final recommendation from the WHO cites the importance of “addressing gambling industry corporate political activity and influence on research.” As an example of what the fact sheet addresses, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ International Gaming Institute has recently announced collaborations with ESPN and Playtech.
Fruchter provided a regulatory perspective on the potential for conflicts of interest.
“Generally speaking,” he said, “questions about legitimacy, rigor and independence are valid when assessing most (if not all) research studies in any field. In that respect, studies about gambling are no different than studies on other industries or topics and require critical thinking and evaluation of those issues.”
“That includes consideration of research methodology, whether there has been full disclosure of all funding sources, and peer review. However, there are many organizations that receive part or most of their funding from the gaming industry that produce independent, reliable, impactful, and insightful work.”
The IGB, other peer regulatory bodies, and academic institutions must continue to emphasize the need for independent, transparent, and well-funded research about responsible/problem gaming to ensure the validity and impartiality of findings on this critical topic.
Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) Administrator Marcus Fruchter, speaking to PlayUSA
The WHO’s assessment of harms related to gambling are similar to views that other public health experts and gambling regulators in the US hold on the subject. At the same time, the approaches to addressing those issues in the daily lives of people look likely to continue to differ in significant ways.
