Gambling With Our Mental Health

I quit gambling about fourteen years ago, but for four years before that it was all I could think about. Prior to smartphones, the most addictive and lucrative form of gambling for the industry was digital roulette on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, machines in betting shops that, until 2019, permitted stakes of £100 per 20-second spin. I lost all the money I had and had access to chasing losses on those machines, which put me in years’ worth of debt.

Worse than the monetary loss was the impact on my mental health. The feeling I had no agency following a losing session led to suicidal ideation, but when I wasn’t gambling, I felt a crippling anxiety. Gambling had become the escape from the problems gambling had caused. Once I quit, it took longer for my mind to reset than it did for me to repair my finances.

When we talk about mental ill-health, it’s often in the context of encouraging people to be open about any challenges they’re facing and, if it’s appropriate, to recommend support. Treatment-centred discussions have been an important aspect of normalising therapies and medications, making mental health problems seem equivalent to physical ailments in terms of how we’re expected to respond to them.

But a parity of esteem between physical and mental health is not adequately reflected in guidance on how we might be able to guard ourselves against mental ill-health and addiction. While the harm to mental health caused by alcohol is well documented, for example, guidance on consumption is framed predominantly around its impact on physical rather than mental health. The lack of comparative information on gambling is made worse by the fact some digital gambling products can lead to significantly more mental health difficulties than others.

We already know gambling can lead to addiction, which induces its own consequential mental health harms that may require treatment to overcome. Research from Landman Economics using the Understanding Society Survey found those engaged specifically in online slots and casino gaming in the seven days prior to being interviewed had significantly worse mental health than the rest of the population who had not participated in that form of gambling the previous week. Online slots and casino gamblers were also more likely to have depressive disorders.

These products account for over half of online gambling sector revenues, and the gambling industry receives significantly more revenue per gambler overall from online slots and casino products than other forms of gambling. Landman Economics found ‘a clear positive relationship between revenue per gambler and the prevalence of mental health problems’. In other words, the types of gambling — like online slots and casino games such as roulette and blackjack — with higher per-player revenues also have a higher proportion of mental health problems associated with them.

While this type of analysis cannot prove a direct causal link, we can infer a risk to mental health either from interacting with these products or from the consequences of doing so. The average online slots and casino gambler loses £2,254 in a year, compared to £929 for the average racing and sports bettor. This is not surprising when you consider that 45 percent of those who use online slots and casinos are either addicted or at-risk.