An Exploratory Study of the Relationship Between Financial Well-Being and Changes in Reported Gambling Behaviour During the COVID-19 Shutdown in Australia

Abstract

A change in someone’s financial situation, such as a windfall gain or increased financial stress, can affect the way that they gamble. The aim of this paper was to explore the relationship between financial well-being and changes in gambling behaviour during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) shutdown. Australian past-year gamblers (N = 764; 85% male) completed an online cross-sectional survey in May 2020. Participants retrospectively reported monthly gambling participation before and after the COVID-19 shutdown, as well as their financial well-being, experience of COVID-related financial hardship, problem gambling severity, and psychological distress. Financial well-being showed strong negative associations with problem gambling and psychological distress. Neither financial well-being nor the interaction between financial well-being and problem gambling severity showed consistent evidence for predicting changes in gambling participation during the shutdown in this sample. This study provides preliminary evidence that self-reported financial well-being has a strong negative association with gambling problems but is not related to gambling participation. Future studies should link objective measures of financial well-being from bank transaction data with survey measures of problem gambling severity and experience of gambling-related harm.

Financial Disruption and Psychological Underpinning During COVID-19: A Review and Research Agenda

“…Students are facing stress due to financial difficulties during pandemics like COVID-19 ( Galanza et al, 2021 ). Gambling tendencies are another important variable that can create serious psychological pressures due to the concerns of financial challenges during the COVID-19 ( Hakansson et al, 2020 ; Swanton et al, 2021 ). Attention should be paid to the psychological stress due to educational disparities, resulting due to financial distress during COVID-19 ( Jiang et al, 2021 ).…”

“…of financial challenges during the COVID-19 (Hakansson et al, 2020;Swanton et al, 2021). Attention should be paid to the psychological stress due to educational disparities, resulting due to financial distress during COVID-19 (Jiang et al, 2021).…”

Risk Factors for Gambling Disorder: A Systematic Review

“…With the COVID-19 pandemic, online gamblers have increased their gambling (Bellringer & Garrett, 2021), aggravating the psychological and social consequences for people with problematic gambling behaviors (Håkansson et al, 2020;Yayha & Khawaja, 2020). The authors highlighted the removal of protective factors, including structured daily life (Yayha & Khawaja, 2020), boredom (Fluharty et al, 2022;Lindner et al, 2020), depression and anxiety (Fluharty et al, 2022), as well a financial deprivation (Price, 2020;Swanton et al, 2021), as the main reasons for the increase in gambling problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is well known that the daily lives of many people have been substantially altered, with a high degree of homeschooling for school children and students (Tejedor et al, 2021), also with likely negative effects for young people and their families (Thorell et al, 2021).…”

“…During 2020/21 almost one-quarter of online gamblers increased their gambling during lockdown (Bellringer & Garrett, 2021;Fluharty et al, 2022;Swanton et al, 2021), with this most likely to be on overseas gambling sites, instant scratch card gambling and Lotto (Bellringer & Garrett, 2021;Price et al, 2022). The sociodemographic risk factor for increased online gambling was higher education (Bellringer & Garrett, 2021), or low education (Fluharty et al, 2022), and financial difficulties related to COVID (Price et al, 2022;Swanton et al, 2021).…”

“…Behavioral risk factors included being a current low risk/moderate risk/problem gambler, a previously hazardous alcohol drinker (i.e., excessive) or past participation in freeto-play gambling-type games (Bellringer & Garrett, 2021), and alcohol consumption (Fluharty et al, 2022;Swanton et al, 2021). Financial well-being showed strong negative associations with problem gambling and psychological distress (Swanton et al, 2021).…”