Gambling is the act of betting or staking something of value on an uncertain event, such as a game or contest. It is a widely used recreational activity, ranging from lottery tickets and casinos to bingo and online betting.
Historically, the term gambling was applied to a specific type of activity that involved risk and chance in order to maximize rewards. However, this has changed over time as people have developed new ways to gamble that are not based on risk and chance.
Definitions of Gambling harm
The first step towards defining gambling related harm was to determine the types and categories of harm that were experienced by the person who gambles or an affected other. This was not easy as it was difficult to capture the subjective and complex nature of gambling.
Using this framework a broad range of domains were identified as being relevant to the impact of gambling related harm, including financial harms, relationship harms and emotional or psychological harms. There were also instances where gambling could be linked to criminal acts. For example, gambling was linked to the theft of cash from ATMs or bank accounts and to the disruption of relationships.