Financial Determinants and Beliefs About Gambling Control: A Cross-National Structural Model of Problem Gambling...

Gambling-related harm is increasingly recognized as a public health concern, yet the role of financial factors in problem gambling remains insufficiently understood. This study examined the associations of financial knowledge, risk-oriented financial behaviour, prudent financial attitudes, and financial anxiety with problem gambling severity. A focused Health Belief Model-informed framework was used to investigate whether perceived benefits of reducing gambling, perceived barriers to gambling reduction, and gambling-related self-efficacy statistically accounted for indirect associations between financial variables and Problem Gambling Severity Index scores. Data were collected from 2,000 adults who had gambled during the previous 12 months in Italy and the United Kingdom. The measurement structure was evaluated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and cross-country measurement invariance testing. Direct, indirect, and total associations were subsequently examined using multi-group structural equation modelling. Financial anxiety was positively associated with problem gambling severity in both countries, whereas financial knowledge and prudent financial attitudes showed inverse associations. Risk-oriented financial behaviour showed a positive direct association with gambling severity in Italy but not in the United Kingdom. Perceived barriers emerged as the strongest HBM-related correlate of gambling severity and accounted for the principal supported indirect associations involving financial anxiety, financial knowledge, and prudent financial attitudes. Perceived benefits and self-efficacy were not independently associated with gambling severity. These findings suggest that gambling-related harm is associated not only with financial competence and vulnerability, but also with the perceived difficulty of reducing gambling. Prevention may therefore benefit from combining financial education with measures that reduce practical, cognitive, and emotional barriers to gambling control.