Betting your life on it

Editor—The editorial by Griffiths provides strong arguments why gambling and problem gambling are public health concerns.¹ But there are also substantial ethical concerns around liberalising access to gambling, given that it may contribute to poverty and increase inequality.

For example, national survey data from New Zealand found that expenditure on gambling was disproportionately higher among people with lower levels of education, people with “lower status occupations,” Maori, and Pacific peoples.² This study also found that poorer socioeconomic status was a significant risk factor for current problem gambling and probable pathological gambling. Such an association has also been reported in the Netherlands,³ in Sweden (when considering social welfare recipients as having low socioeconomic status⁴), and in the United States.⁵

Such health and justice problems imply that, from a societal perspective, it may be best for governments to further tighten restrictions on access to gambling as a whole, and particularly on the most hazardous forms for inducing gambling disorders (gaming machines and track racing).