Economics and Health Policy Analysis: Reducing Harmful Effects of Gambling

This article discusses the impact of gambling on health and finances, and suggests policies to reduce its harmful effects. It includes analysis of health issues related to gambling, cost and effectiveness of policies, and literature review and data.

Running head: ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Economics and health policy analysis
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Table of contents
Background................................................................................................................................3
Policy options for reduction of gambling...................................................................................3
Analysis of health issues related to gambling............................................................................5
Cost and effectiveness of the policies........................................................................................7
Literature review and data..........................................................................................................7
Inclusion of examples................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Reference list............................................................................................................................10

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Background
The activity of gambling is been undertaken by more than eighty percent of the
Australian adults. Australians are known to be the highest gamblers in the world. Gambling
is also an important health issue experienced by a vast population in Australia. Huge rate of
gambling not only affects the finances but also it affects the health too. There is a presence pf
strong connection between mental health and gambling. Gambling can also affect and
individual and a family. Problem gambling can also have a serious impact on the emotional,
physical as well as on the financial individuals who is into gambling. Problem gambling can
be described as an urge to keep on gambling even though knowing it has negative
consequences. Extreme cases of problem gambling can be sometimes termed as clinical
pathological gambling which is quite a common disorder which includes social costs. It has
also been found out that when a gambler does not receive a proper treatment he may
experience depression and even become suicidal (Blinn-Pike 2017). According to a survey it
has been found out that problem gambling affects around two hundred thousand Australians.
Gambling is quite widespread among older population. Men re likely to be gambling more
than the women. Gambling is also considered as an important public health issue. The social
cost of gambling problem is estimated to be around $4.7 billion each year.
Policy options for reduction of gambling
There is a presence of lot of economic and cultural obstacles in order to reduce the
harms caused by gambling. The government of Australia should play a vital role in reducing
the problem gambling. Some of the policies are
Safe online betting
Online games of poker or games like sports betting are not legal and also the parties
who provide such services are not supervised. The players are also not protected from the

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
harmful effects caused due to addiction of gambling. The government therefore, wants to
provide licences to the providers of the online games of chance which will also make it
possible for the providers to meet certain conditions (Richard and Derevensky 2017). This
kind of policy will allow license holders to keep the players under control. It will also show
them how much money they can lose as they gamble. The license holder will also not allow
the problem gamblers from online betting. A registry can be created where the problem
gamblers can register themselves. This will definitely make it easier to protect the problem
gamblers from addictive gambling. The Gambling Authority can therefore look after whether
the providers are keeping the rules or not. Another policy can be different education program
and media campaigns regarding the harmful effects of gambling. Game rules should include a
pool of specific measures which does not favour the gambling.
An information program should be initiated and implemented.
An information program which is aimed at specific risk groups which needs to be
developed and implemented. It should be applied to all kinds of vulnerable groups which
includes children and people of all ages like elderly as el as minorities (Blinn-Pike 2017). The
information program should employ new kind of instruments depending on the trends in the
gaming market.
Establish a disciplinary and inter-authority working group of people for internet
gambling
The working group will acquire the available knowledge abut the internet gambling or
online games and will also gather information about the problems associated with these
games they will also make proposals for natural measures which will help in preventing
problem gambling. The group will be composed of people from various services who will
work towards reducing gambling (Richard and Derevensky 2017). The professionals in the

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
social service along with the health sectors must be qualifies enough to detect the tendencies
of problem gambling as soon as possible.
Implementation of training programs on gambling dependency in schools and colleges.
Schools can play a significant role in prevention as the administrators are the first to
detect the warning signs of the problems which includes poor school attendance and
declining academic performance (Whiting et al. 2016). The prevention measures should
begin early and continue till they grow up. The gambling problem prevention program which
are usually educational based are significant avenues in case of targeting at risk behaviours
among the children which help to prevent an escalation of problematic behaviours in to
adulthood. Several gambling prevention programs should be developed in order to address
the issues. The prevention programs that usually targets risk factors focuses to decrease the
influence of risk factors.
Implementing tax on gambling winnings
Implementing taxes on the poker machines and gambling can help government earn a
lots of revenue. Taxes related to gambling also consists of significant revenue source for the
State government. Tax reforms therefore can help to reduce the problem of gambling.
Analysis of health issues related to gambling
Problem gambling and depression
According to the recent research it has been found out that people facing gambling
problem found to be more depressed and experiences severe psychological distress compared
to the people without a normal gambling problem. The reason behind this is that many people
uses gambling to escape in order to escape from negative situations. Gambling can also give
people the feeling of getting connected to other people. Depression affects people of all kinds

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
of ages and is present in all over the world. People with gambling problem have a strong
possibility that they also suffer from depression. It has also been found out that seventy six
percent of the problem gamblers are facing major depressive disorder.
Gambling related to anxiety
Anxiety is a feeling of nervousness or worry about something with an uncertain
outcome. Anxiety in a way can fuel the problem for gambling and it goes hand in hand. There
are many people who are known to gamble as a way of managing anxiety because when they
gamble it is found that people can separate themselves from the anxious feeling (Whiting et
al. 2016). The sign s of anxiety consists of insomnia, heart palpitation, feeling out control and
irritability. Some people finds that gambling provides an escape from any kind of stressful
feelings which is mainly short lived. Gambling can be also used a coping strategy as it
initially reduces stress. Although, when the rate of gambling progresses, it becomes a
problem which often creates anxiety. According to the gamblers, gambling can also provide
distraction and a sense of escape.
Gambling and suicide
Suicide and suicidal tendencies is quite common among the compulsive gamblers.
People faces financial problems, their relationship and family’s ruins and also a feeling of
hopelessness arises. By the time the gamblers reaches the bottom, every aspect of the life is
already been destroyed which makes them more suicidal. The problem gamblers have the
highest suicidal rates of any addicted group (Romanczuk‐Seiferth et al. 2015). Females who
are smokers with a gambling problem are at an increased rate of suicide. Smokers are known
to be depressed and to be considered as suicidal as a result of gambling problems.

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Gambling addiction is also correlated with a large number of health cost. People
gambling excessively shows different signs of depression, anxiety, high blood pressure and
illness which are often related to stress. Gambling also results to mental health problems.
Cost and effectiveness of the policies
Cost effectiveness is the relation between monetary inputs and the desired outcomes.
In case of implementing safe online betting the government have to provide licences which
incus huge cost. Safe online betting also include internet charges (Dickins and Thomas 2016).
The total spending of the Australian government for gambling reduction is known to be
around $20 billion each year. Most of which is poured in the vast poker machines of
Australia the government has also implement various acts and policies to reduce gambling.
There is also a presence of social costs in gambling. The above mentioned policies have also
been quite effective in the long run. Implementation of training program in schools and
colleges were also found to be highly effective. Participants were also known to be highly
satisfied with the training program. According to the participants the training had been quite
relevant and useful too. The programs which aimed at reducing gambling have been effective
in the long run.
Literature review and data
The legalization and availability of different types of gambling are at a rise in the
western countries. Though the treatment of gambling have started taking place from a long
time, there is only a few developments on pathological gambling. Gambling provides a
revenue of about $5147 million to the state governments of Australia.
Cognitive interventions
Scholar Echeburua have compared three active treatments with control groups. The
treatment consists of exposure response prevention along with combined treatment.

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Prevention related to exposure response is considered as a behavioural treatment where
people are trained to manage money and avoid gambling situations so that they resist
gambling. Only a little amount of attention have been paid to the meditation or the process
which includes behaviour change.
It has been estimated that 76% of the pathological gamblers are known to have a lifetime
history of depression. The pathological gamblers were known to suffer depression three times
more likely than the non-pathological gamblers (Whiting et al. 2016). These type of gamblers
were ten times more likely to attempt suicide when compared to the general population.
However, in case of women with gambling problem, majority of them have suicidal
tendencies and 29% of them had already attempted suicide. High rate of gambling is also
known to make people feel sad and hopeless. Eighty percent of the people who plays
gambling have been reported that they “wanted to die”.
Inclusion of examples
One of the policies for reducing gambling consists of commonwealth policy and
legislation. The Prime Minister of Australia released a statement which announced a
Commonwealth support for supporting a national approach for problem gambling. Although
many young adults have known to participate in gambling activities, only twenty two percent
of the population of the colleges in United States have formal policies on gambling (Dickins
and Thomas 2016). In order to avoid this problem, , the National Centre for Responsible
Gaming (NCRG) and the Division on Addiction at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching
affiliate of Harvard Medical School, have introduced a task force on the college gambling
policies recently. The task force mainly focused on the prohibition and restriction policies
which recognizes gambling disorders as a mental health issue.

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Conclusion
Problem gambling is known to have serious impact on the emotional, physical and the
financial health of the individuals who gambles. People who are known to have gambled
excessively have developed mixed feelings about gambling. It has also been found out that
people who gambles excessively feels quite stressed and depressed all the times. Gambling in
this way can affect the health of various people which also makes thinking, solving problems
difficult. Rates of suicide for people who gambles a lot are on a rise. The people who are
known to have attempted suicide suffer from the health problems. Problem gambling can
therefore have a detrimental effect on the personal finances. The impacts of problem
gambling can be more than only losing money (Romanczuk‐Seiferth.et al. 2015). Therefore,
various alternative policies have been introduced in order to reduce the harmful effects of
gambling. Some of them which can be implementing various programs in schools and
colleges along with the various awareness programs. Implementation of tax and introducing
licenses in the online betting is also recommended.

ECONOMICS AND HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Reference list
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