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Effects of a National Preventive Intervention Against Potential COVID-19-Related Gambling Problems in Online
Anders Håkansson1, Andreas Sundvall2, Axel Lyckberg2
1Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic has been suspected to increase gambling problems in the population. Several governments introduced COVID-19-specific interventions early with the aim to prevent gambling problems, but their effects have not been evaluated.
Objective:
This study aimed to evaluate a Swedish COVID-19-related temporary legislation imposing an automated weekly deposit limit for online casino gambling.
Methods:
The study was an anonymous survey sent by a state-owned gambling operator to online gamblers (N=619), among whom 54.0% (n=334) were moderate-risk/problem gamblers who reached the weekly limit on online gambling during the summer of 2020.
Results:
Overall, 60.1% (372/619) were aware of having been limited by the COVID-19-related deposit limit, and a minority (145/619, 23.4%) perceived the intervention as fairly bad or very bad. Among those aware of the intervention, 38.7% (144/372) believed the intervention decreased their overall gambling, whereas 7.8% (29/372) believed it rather increased it. However, 82.5% (307/372) reported having gambled at more than one operator after the limit, and the most common gambling type reported to have increased at another operator was online casino (42% among moderate-risk/problem gamblers and 19% among others; P<.001). An increase in gambling following the intervention was associated with being a moderate-risk/problem gambler and having negative attitudes toward the intervention.
Conclusions:
The weekly deposit limit had relatively high acceptability, but the study highlights the limitations of a single-operator deposit limit, given the high number of gamblers also reporting gambling at other operators and the lower effect in clients with gambling problems.
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