Damian Sendler: COVID-19 has a profound effect on mental health. There have been a number of concerns about the pandemic’s effect on gambling since the beginning of the epidemic. In light of the restrictions imposed by public health authorities, such as physical distancing and lockdowns, many actors are concerned about a shift to online gambling. Because online gambling is regarded as a high-risk activity, this change is concerning. Therefore, we need to learn more about how the pandemic is affecting the gambling industry. Scoping reviews aim to summarize the literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on gambling. This review is a scoping review of that literature. According to our research, this is the first review to focus on this topic.
Damian Jacob Sendler: Research on COVID-19 and gambling is limited and the pandemic’s impact on gambling behavior and gambling-related issues remains unconfirmed. To better understand the impact of the pandemic on gambling, more research is needed, both qualitative and mixed methods studies. We need to be careful, especially with problem gamblers and other groups of people who appear to be more susceptible to gambling during this pandemic period.
Dr. Sendler: Significant consequences have been caused by the pandemic of COVID-19. Individuals, businesses, healthcare systems, and the economy are all feeling the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. The extent of the pandemic’s collateral damage has only recently been realized.
There is a crisis in mental health because of COVID-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, anxiety and depression have become more common (Rajkumar, 2020). There is a strong correlation between stress and substance abuse among people who live alone, as has been documented in the past: (Volkow, 2020). The same thing has been observed with regard to gambling during a crisis (Economou et al., 2019; Jiménez-Murcia et al., 2013; Olason et al., 2015)..
There has been a recent increase in the recognition of gambling disorder as a major public health issue (Abbott, 2020; Delfabbro and King, 2020; Korn and Shaffer, 1999; Korn et al., 2003; Messerlian et al., 2005; Shaffer and Korn, 2002; van Schalkwyk et al., 2019; Wardle et al., 2019). Gambling addiction affects anywhere from 0.12% to 5.8% of the population (Potenza et al., 2019). Gambling disorder is defined in the DSM-5 as a long-term and recurrent problem with gambling that has a negative impact on one’s life (APA, 2013). Individuals who engage in problem gambling tend to fall into four categories: those with low risk, those with moderate risk, and those with high risk (e.g., Problem Gambling Severity Index; Holtgraves, 2008).
Comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse disorder are common in “pathological gamblers,” according to a recent study. As many as 96% have one or more mental illnesses, and 64% have three or more mental illnesses,” the study found (Kessler et al., 2008). This situation is especially concerning in light of the current pandemic, which appears to be accompanied by an increase in anxiety and depressive symptoms (Rajkumar, 2020).
There have been a number of concerns about the pandemic’s effect on gambling since the beginning of the epidemic. In the wake of the closure of many land-based gambling activities, many actors fear a shift to online gambling as a result of the restrictions imposed by public health authorities, such as physical distancing and lockdowns (Davies, 2020; Griffiths et al., 2020; King et al., 2020). Because of its accessibility, speed, and anonymity, among other things, online gambling is considered a high-risk activity (Gainsbury et al., 2015; Hing et al., 2015).
It is the goal of this review to summarize the literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on gaming. Conducting a current assessment of the situation in order to guide public policies regarding gambling and reduce the harm associated with it is critical in today’s context. Langham et al. (2016) stated that “[h]armed from gambling is known to impact people, families and communities; theses harms are not restricted to people with gambling disorder.”
In the first phase of the outbreak, “total gambling activity decreased by 13.29 percent compared to [the] forecast,” according to Lindner et al. (2020). There was no increase in high-intensity gambling or total online gambling during the period studied, despite a significant decrease in betting and a slight decrease in online casino gambling. Only “four percent [4 percent] reported an overall increase in gambling during the pandemic,” according to Hkansson (2020). Hkansson et al. (2020b) found that “gambling increase during the pandemic was rare but [was] related to gambling problems” in their investigation of elite athletes. However, Donati et al. (2021) found that even problem gamblers decreased their gambling behaviors and cravings during the pandemic, and that no “shift toward online gambling and very limited shift toward other potential addictive and excessive behaviors” were found. According to Auer et al. (2020), “speculations that individuals may spend more time and money gambling online as a result of being confined to their home for long periods appear unfounded.”
COVID-19 pandemic’s risk factors for increased gambling behavior and problems are still unknown. Hkansson et al., 2020a, Hkansson et al., 2020b; Lindner et al., 2020) all found that the rare increases observed were always linked to high-risk gamblers. “Increased gambling was independently and clearly associated with the severity of problem gambling,” according to Hkansson (2020). Rather, Gainsbury et al. (2020) found that “individuals engaged in moderate-risk gambling, but not problem gambling, were more likely to report an increase in gambling frequency” during the pandemic, according to their findings. Personality and sociodemographic characteristics, such as “age, male gender, low levels of study, and impulsive characteristics play a decisive role in problem gambling” were found to be the most common causes of problem gambling during the pandemic.
There was no “conversion of money spent from sports betting to online casinos games […] and that frequent online sports bettors wagering on online casino games stayed the same before and during the COVID-19 pandemic,” as Auer et al. (2020) noted in regard to the feared shift to online gambling The minority of people who said they had switched to other forms of gambling had a “clear picture of problematic gambling involvement,” according to Hkansson (2020). The same conclusion was reached by him and his colleagues in another study (Hkansson, 2020b). “Although betting decreased substantially along with a slight increase in online casino gambling, there was no increase in high-intensity, likely problematic gambling,” according to Lindner et al. (2020). An older study (Lischer et al., 2021) found an increase in online gambling (p 0.002) among the population studied, while Hkansson (2020c) notes an important “increase in horse betting during the sports lockdown” and warns against a “possible COVID-19-related migration between gambling types, indicating a volatility with possible impact on gambling-related public health.”
According to four articles (Hkansson, 2020; Hkansson et al. 2020b; Price, 2020; Sharman et al. 2021) there is an association between gambling and well-known comorbidities like anxiety, depression and substance use disorder. Hkansson (2020) found that “the group reporting increased gambling had higher rates of psychological distress [and] one of the clearest findings of the study has been that self-reported increase in alcohol consumption during the pandemic is associated with a self-reported increase in gambling.” Study findings show that “gambling under the influence of alcohol or cannabis increased the odds of high-risk gambling status by approximately 9 times (p 0.01) […] and those who were screened for moderate and severe forms of anxiety (25.7 percent) and depression (12.6 percent) were more likely to gamble online during the first six weeks of emergency measures and be classified as high-risk gamblers.” Hkansson et al. (2020a) cited a pilot study conducted early in the pandemic at the Gambling Disorder and Other Behavioral Addictions Unit of the Department of Psychiatry at the University Hospital of Bellvitge in Barcelona, Spain, which found that “after two weeks of confinement, 12 percent […] reported worsening gambling […] 46 percent showed anxiety symptoms and 27 percent showed depressive symptoms” (Hka). According to Sharman et al. (2021), “mental health of participants; while depression stress and anxiety remain highest in potential problem gamblers,” lockdown had a significant impact on “the mental health of participants; while depression stress and anxiety remain highest in potential problem gamblers.” However, there was a significant increase in calls to other crisis lines, counterbalancing this decrease.
Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler: Several commentaries and editorials expressed concern that access to care and services for gamblers and support groups, such as Gamblers Anonymous, has been limited because of the pandemic (Turner, 2020; Yahya and Khawaja, 2020; Hkansson et al., 2020a; Yahya and Khawaja, 2020). According to Griffiths et al. (2020), COVID-19 is likely to increase the number of vulnerable people and worsen existing inequalities. Pandemic creates rare window of opportunity for treatment, detoxification, and rehabilitation of problem gamblers because there are fewer opportunities to gamble during lockdown, according to George (2020).
In response to the pandemic, some policymakers instituted new gambling restrictions. “The overall concerns about altered gambling behavior during the crisis have led several governments to take action through different measures, such as a limitation on gambling advertisements in Spain, deposit limits in Belgium, and a total ban in Latvia,” as pointed out by Hkansson (2020) in the introduction to his article. ” Legislation limiting online casino deposits and time spent gaming was passed by the Swedish government (Lindner et al., 2020). According to Hunt et al. (2020), evidence on the patterns and context of gambling in COVID-19 as well as its immediate aftermath is critical to alleviating gambling harms. There needs to be careful consideration of policies, say Gainsbury et al. (2020). Policy restrictions can lead to an increase in gambling activities that are known to exacerbate the problem.
Damian Sendler
Some authors have also briefly discussed the impact of the pandemic on the gambling industry. Indeed, the pandemic has had a significant impact on the gambling market. Driving through a drive-thru gambling center is an innovative business strategy used by some operators, according to Griffiths et al (2020). To be sure, the industry did exercise caution in some countries as mentioned by Sharman (2020). As a result of industry-led self-regulation initiatives, the most significant changes to gambling regulations in the UK have occurred. A ten-point pledge to promote “safer gambling” was made by members of the Betting and Gaming Council during lockdown, which was supplemented by a voluntary reduction in gambling advertising on TV and radio. Re-evaluation of the land-based gambling industry should be implemented during pandemic lockdowns by Czegledy (2020), according to Czegledy (2020). As a result of the pandemic, Ng Yuen and Bursby (2020) are concerned about the growing unpredictability in the gambling industry sector.
Gambling has become a public health issue in recent years, and policymakers and sports organizations have tasken notice. Certain sports, particularly football, were being separated from gambling before the pandemic occurred in Europe (Sharman, 2020). However, some football clubs were left in a precarious financial position due to the pandemic. Clubs’ dependence on gambling money was brought to light by this study (Sharman, 2020). It’s a concern to Griffiths et al. (2020) that governments may use gambling expansion and its subsequent revenues to recover resources that will be a priority with the inevitable economic depression looming, as this financial dependence on gambling money is.
Damien Sendler: There is a wide-ranging impact on gambling from the pandemic. It’s our understanding that this is the first review of COVID-19 and gambling specifically. From the beginning of the pandemic until February 25, 2021, the literature on gambling and COVID-19 has been reviewed. Preliminary findings suggest that gambling has declined overall since the outbreak of the pandemic, and that problem gamblers may be particularly vulnerable.
This review has a number of flaws that need to be addressed. Only peer-reviewed articles are included, and no gray literature is included. As a second point, six out of the original fourteen articles were written by Swedes (Lindner et al. ; Lindner et al. ), all of whom are from Sweden (Hkansson et al., 2021; Hkansson et al., 2020b). It’s impossible to generalize these findings to other countries because there was no lockdown in Sweden during the first wave of the pandemic (Warren et al., 2021) or because other countries didn’t impose gambling restrictions like deposit caps and time limits (Lindner et al., 2020). So, we need to be cautious about jumping to the conclusion that the pandemic hasn’t led to an increase in gambling. Gambling addicts appear to be at risk. In light of the current uptick in anxiety and depression symptoms, it’s critical to keep a close eye on this previously identified vulnerable population (Rajkumar, 2020).
Damian Jacob Sendler
There has only been a small amount of research done so far. There have been no published qualitative or mixed studies, in fact. It is critical to gain a better understanding of how gamblers coped with the pandemic. Gambling may have decreased as a result of a number of factors, including individuals having less money to gamble because their occupational earning potential has been lower during the pandemic, individuals not wanting to gamble in front of their family members, or individuals spending more time on other activities such as spending quality time with their families or finally having the time to do bigger jobs around the house and gar. We need more information about these hypotheses in that context. Furthermore, studies on specific populations, such as the LGBTQ+ community and Native Americans, are lacking. Finally, as outlined by Hkansson et al. (2020a), comparative studies on gambling policies adopted during the pandemic, the impacts of COVID-19 on the gambling industry, and alternative forms of gambling developed by gamblers, such as teenage football games or amateur low-tier friendship games, are needed.
Be aware that the scope of this review extends only as far back as February 25th, 2021. As a result, there are more studies that focus on the first wave of the pandemic, rather than the second or third. We need studies that look at the effects of the pandemic as a whole, as well as subsequent waves. To get a more complete picture of the issue, studies from around the world are also needed. Further research on gambling and COVID-19 will be necessary by the end of the pandemic, given how quickly the literature is evolving. “Even in the midst of the pandemic, we need to be aware that gambling harms are still occurring,” according to Griffiths et al. (2020).
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, problem gamblers, as well as others, are particularly vulnerable, according to the current literature. As the pandemic continues to ravage the world, more research is needed. Because of the evolving context in which the pandemic is taking place, unanticipated consequences, impacts, and reactions are possible. Various methodology designs and a focus on various populations and regions are needed for future research in order to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gaming. The most vulnerable people will need their assistance if we are to reduce the negative effects of gambling.