Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Exploring the Impact of Gambling Advertising: An Interview Study of Problem Gamblers

  • Published:
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study qualitatively explored the impact of gambling advertising on problem gambling by interviewing twenty-five people with current or past gambling problems. Interviews were relatively long and involved the participants’ viewing numerous examples of gambling advertising. A quarter of the participants reported that gambling advertising had no impact on their problems, slightly over half of them reported that advertising had a marginal impact, and one fifth reported a tangible impact. However, none considered advertising to be a main cause of their gambling problems. The negative self-perceived impact was primarily that advertising triggered impulses to gamble. Advertising thus increased already high involvement in gambling and/or made it harder to stick to a decision to gamble less or not at all.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amey, B. (2001). People’s participation in and attitudes to gaming, 1985–2000: Final results of the 2000 survey. Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binde, P. (2005). Att sälja en dröm: Om spelreklam och dess påverkan. Stockholm: Statens folkhälsoinstitut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binde, P. (2007a). Selling dreams—causing nightmares? On gambling advertising and problem gambling. Journal of Gambling Issues, 20, 167–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binde, P. (2007b). Spelreklam och spelberoende: En intervjustudie. Östersund: Statens folkhälsoinstitut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonke, J. (2007). Ludomani i Danmark II: Faktorer af betydning for spilleproblemer. København: Socialforskningsinstituttet.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boughton, R., Brewster, J. M. (2002). Voices of women who gamble in Ontario: A survey of women’s gambling, barriers to treatment and treatment service needs. Retrieved October 12, 2008, from http://www.gamblingresearch.org/download.sz/voicesofwomen%20Boughton%20(1).pdf?docid=1524.

  • Brown, R. I. F. (1988). Models of gambling and gambling addictions as perceptual filters. Journal of Gambling Behavior, 3(4), 224–236. doi:10.1007/BF01019882.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, M. J., & Moore, T. L. (1998). Adolescent gambling in Oregon: A report to the Oregon Gambling Addiction Treatment Foundation. Salem, ON: Oregon Gambling Addiction Treatment Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clotfelter, C. T., & Cook, P. J. (1989). Selling hope: State lotteries in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crockford, D. N., Goodyear, B., Edwards, J., Quickfall, J., & el-Guebaly, N. (2005). Cue-induced brain activity in pathological gamblers. Biological Psychiatry, 58(10), 787–795. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.04.037.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, D. C., & Glautier, S. (1994). A controlled trial of cue exposure treatment in alcohol dependence. Journal of Consulting Clinical Psychology, 62(4), 809–817. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.62.4.809.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gambling Impact and Behavior Study (1999). Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gehring, V. V. (1999). The American state lottery: Sale or swindle? International Journal of Applied Philosolophy, 13(2).

  • Goudriaan, A. E., Oosterlaan, J., de Beurs, E., & Van den Brink, W. (2004). Pathological gambling: A comprehensive review of biobehavioral findings. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 28(2), 123–141. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.03.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grant, J. E., & Kim, S. W. (2001). Demographic and clinical features of 131 adult pathological gamblers. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 62(12), 957–962.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, M. D. (2005). Does gambling advertising contribute to problem gambling? International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 3(2), 15–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haracz, J. L., Mash, D. C., & Sircar, R. (1999). A multicomponent learning model of drug abuse: Drug taking and craving may involve separate brain circuits underlying instrumental and classical conditioning, respectively. Annals of New York Academy of Sciences, 877, 811–819. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb09329.x.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Heath, R. (2000). Low involvement processing—a new model of brands and advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 19(3), 287–298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heath, R., Brandt, D., & Nairn, A. (2006). Brand relationships: Strengthened by emotion, weakened by attention. Journal of Advertising Ressearch, 46(4), 410–419. doi:10.2501/S002184990606048X.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, M. J. (2001). Odds should improve for lottery advertising guidelines. Gaming Law Review, 5(3), 161–163. doi:10.1089/10921880152486843.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jonsson, J., Andrén, A., Nilsson, T., Svensson, O., Munck, I., Kindstedt, A., et al. (2003). Spelberoende i Sverige—vad kännetecknar personer med spelproblem? Rapport om andra fasen av den svenska nationella studien av spel och spelberoende. Stockholm: Statens folkhälsoinstitut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korn, D., Hurson, T., & Reynolds, J. (2003). Commercial gambling advertising: Possible impact on youth knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behavioural intentions. Guelph: Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre. Retrieved October 12, 2008, from: http://www.gamblingresearch.org/download.sz/125%20Final%20Report%20-%2012APR05.pdf?docid=6481.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, H.-S., Lee Lemanski, J., & Jun, J. W. (2008). Role of gambling media exposure in influencing trajectories among college students. Journal of Gambling Studies, 24(1), 25–37. doi:10.1007/s10899-007-9078-0.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lesieur, H. R., & Blume, S. B. (1987). The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS): A new instrument for the identification of pathological gamblers. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144(9), 1184–1188.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lund, I. (2008). The population mean and the proportion of frequent gamblers: Is the theory of total consumption valid for gambling? Journal of Gambling Studies, 24(2), 247–256. doi:10.1007/s10899-007-9081-5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R., & Mizerski, R. (1998). Investigating the relationship between ad recall, affect toward the producer and the purchase of three number lotto tickets (work in progress). Paper presented at the ANZMAC98 Conference, Otago, New Zealand, November 30–December 2, 1998. Retreived October 12, 2008, from: http://130.195.95.71:8081/www/ANZMAC1998/Cd_rom/Miller268.pdf.

  • Oakes, J., Battersby, M. W., Pols, R. G., & Cromarty, P. (2008). Exposure therapy for problem gambling via videoconferencing: A case report. Journal of Gambling Studies, 24(1), 107–118. doi:10.1007/s10899-007-9074-4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Potenza, M. N., Steinberg, M. A., Skudlarski, P., Fulbright, R. K., Lacadie, C. M., Wilber, M. K., et al. (2003). Gambling urges in pathological gambling. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(8), 828–836. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.60.8.828.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Poulin, C. (2006). Gambling. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 175(10), 1208–1209. doi:10.1503/cmaj.061299.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rönnberg, S., Volberg, R. A., Abbott, M. W., Moore, W. L., Andrén, A., Munck, I., et al. (1999). Gambling and problem gambling in Sweden. Stockholm: Statens folkhälsoinstitut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shenk, J. W. (1995). Everyone’s a loser: How lottery ads entice the wrong people to gamble. The Washington Monthly, 27(7/8), 22–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stranahan, H., & O’Malley Borg, M. (1998). Horizontal equity implications of the lottery tax. National Tax Journal, 51(1), 71–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Symes, B. A., & Nicki, R. M. (1997). A preliminary consideration of cue-exposure, response-prevention treatment for pathological gambling behaviour: Two case studies. Journal of Gambling Studies, 13(2), 145–157. doi:10.1023/A:1024951301959.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tavares, H., Zilberman, M. L., Hodgins, D. C., & el-Guebaly, N. (2005). Comparison of craving between pathological gamblers and alcoholics. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 29(8), 1427–1431. doi:10.1097/01.alc.0000175071.22872.98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research has been funded by the Swedish National Institute of Public Health. Some of the arguments have appeared in Swedish in the report Spelreklam och spelberoende: En intervjustudie (Binde 2007b). The paper was presented at the European Association for the Study of Gambling (EASG) conference in Nova Gorizia, Slovenia, 1–4 July 2008. I am thankful for comments received on that occasion.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Public Sector Research (CEFOS), University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 720, SE-405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Per Binde

Authors
  1. Per Binde
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Per Binde.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Binde, P. Exploring the Impact of Gambling Advertising: An Interview Study of Problem Gamblers. Int J Ment Health Addiction 7, 541–554 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-008-9186-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-008-9186-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation