“They loved gambling more than me.” Women's experiences of gambling‐related harm as an affected other

Abstract

Background Gambling poses a global threat to public health due to its far‐reaching impacts. Research has demonstrated a ripple effect of harmful gambling on social network members and broader communities. While researchers have documented extreme harms associated with an affected other, limited research has qualitatively investigated how women describe their concerns about the gambling of a social network member, and any subsequent negative impacts on their own lives. Methods An online panel survey was conducted with women aged 18 years and older, who gambled at least once in the last 12 months, and resided in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales. This paper focused on the open text responses of a subsection of the sample (n = 136) who reported being negatively impacted by someone else's gambling. The study utilised reflexive thematic analysis to interpret the data. Results Results indicated that women were concerned about the gambling behaviours of a broad range of social network members. Open text responses regarding the nature of these concerns mostly related to individualised paradigms of gambling behaviour – including whether the participant perceived their network member could afford to gamble, was being responsible with their gambling, or were gambling too frequently. Participants experienced a range of negative impacts including significant financial issues, relationship difficulties, poorer emotional wellbeing as a result of worrying about the gambler, and loss of trust. Some described the negative experiences associated with growing up with a parent who gambled. Conclusion The research demonstrates the broad impacts of gambling on affected others. This study enhances our understanding of how women are harmed by gambling and considers the complexities of their experiences and relationships with the gambler. This extends knowledge beyond quantitative descriptors of harm among affected others and provides a critical reflection on the nuances of women's experiences with gambling and gambling harm.

Time for policies on gambling to benefit health ‐ not the gambling industry

“…Many gambling products are linked to issues of major community concern including family violence, homelessness, energy poverty, mental health problems and suicide (see 8 ). These harms impact not only on the individual gambler, but also on their social network members 9 . Prolific and omnipresent gambling marketing has also led to the normalisation of gambling for children and young people, who are now exposed to gambling products and promotions in everyday community settings, and consider gambling a normal or common part of sport 10 .…”

The impact of responsible gambling framing on people with lived experience of gambling harm

“…However, researchers have highlighted that they are often excluded or underrepresented in gambling studies (McCarthy et al, 2019 ). It was also important to ensure that women's experiences were represented in the study as both gamblers and affected others (McCarthy et al, 2022b , c ). All participants provided informed consent and were offered a $50 grocery voucher.…”

“…Second, there is limited understanding of the alternative frames that gamblers think could be used in public messages about gambling. Third, while there is some evidence that affected others view gambling harm as the result of individual behavior (McCarthy et al, 2022c ), no research to date has specifically explored how responsible gambling frames may impact on the perceptions held by people who have been directly impacted by someone else's gambling (‘affected others'). Finally, Alexius ( 2017 ) suggested that the members of a gambler's social network may reinforce that the gambler is responsible for harm if they have been taught that gambling is a personal responsibility.…”

The Acceptability of Lying and Its Relationship with Other Personality Constructs among a Sample of Adults

“…A person might lie about their online activity to hide their sexual interests, sexual practices, or sexual compulsions from a partner or family member [33,35]. Secrecy and lying to close relations are also characterized as typical behaviors of people with gambling disorder who gamble online and offline [36,37]. Previous research found correlations between internet misuse, compulsive behaviors [29,31] and impaired relationships with family and friends [33,35] but not with scores on the Sheehan Disability Scale (a three-item self-report scale of work, family life and home responsibilities) [38].…”