Mind the GAP! Pathological gambling, a modern defy to public health

Due to its clinical aspects, pathological gambling is of paramount interest for Psychology and Psychiatry; however, it also has such characteristics that call for the interest and the intervention of Public Health, both at national and international level. This pathology is a growing problem in our society, particularly in some groups of vulnerable people; has a strong psycho-social impact on the individuals, their families, their social environment and the society as a whole; requires an organized, competent, structured and integrated intervention of the Public Health care services and of specialized private organizations; and, finally, it represents important economic implications. As far as the Italian situation is concerned, it is estimated that up to 50% of the population has experienced gambling at least once; consequently, the political world has taken interest in the problem, producing in 2016 a governmental Report on Pathological Gambling to the Parliament; moreover, pathological gambling has been included into the 2017 revision of the Essential Levels of Health Care Regulations, whose validity is nationwide, provided that, usually, the Regions legislate autonomously on health assistance aspects. Recently, the Observatory on Contrast to Pathological Gambling and to Serious Gambling Addiction has published specific ad hoc guidelines and the Italian Parliament approved a law forbidding every form of gambling advertising (Law No. 96/2018). However, even considering the interest of the National Health Service in contrasting pathological gambling, the problem is far from its solution; firstly, because the State itself earns a considerable amount of money from the taxation of "legal" gambling, thus creating a resounding conflict of interest; secondly, because the peripheral branches of the National Health Service have responded unevenly so far when trying to organize the contrast. What is needed for the future is an effort of coordination between the National Health Service - at State, Region and local level - and the Non-Governmental Organizations, in order to face the cultural, political, communicational, organizational, technological and public health aspects of such a contrast, balancing incentives and disincentives wisely.