The Information Needs of Individuals Affected by Harmful Gambling in Ireland

Abstract

Harmful gambling is an addiction issue that negatively affects not only gambling participants but also their families and friends. Ireland is estimated to be one of the top countries in the world for levels of gambling; however, legislation and social policy lag behind measures in other countries. This paper reports findings related to information seeking and provision from the first national study of the social impact of harmful gambling in Ireland. In-depth interviews were conducted with addiction counsellors, recovering gamblers, and gamblers’ social connections to explore their perceptions of availability of information and services to address this public health issue. In addition to calling for revised regulatory and policy development to support formal channels of information and service provision to facilitate individual recovery, participants believed initiatives around providing information and educating the public about the potential personal and social risks associated with gambling would help protect those vulnerable to harm from gambling. Critically, participants identified a need for information to facilitate well-being as central to addressing this issue.

Gambling in Ireland: profile of treatment episodes from a national treatment reporting system

“…Barriers to treatment include lack of information about the nature and scale of the problem, the absence of specific public health approach or policies regarding gambling, along with the system or lack therefore of for dealing with referrals Kerr et al 2021). The occurrence of a crisis (such as financial, emotional and sometimes legal difficulties) commonly precedes treatment seeking (Fulton, 2019), therefore those who have not yet experienced crisis are less likely to seek treatment.…”

“…The barriers to treatment include a lack of knowledge about services, cost, cultural and language issues (Gainsbury et al 2014), as well as treatment availability and threat of stigmatisation (Dąbrowska et al 2017). The secrecy surrounding problem gambling provides a challenge to service provision (Fulton, 2019). As problem gambling is often addressed at crisis point, people may not have the financial means to access services if they are not free or affordable (Fulton, 2019).…”

“…2017). The secrecy surrounding problem gambling provides a challenge to service provision (Fulton, 2019). As problem gambling is often addressed at crisis point, people may not have the financial means to access services if they are not free or affordable (Fulton, 2019).…”

“…Gaps in knowledge and research about gambling disorder and harm in Ireland have been identified (Fulton, 2019; O’Gara, 2018; College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, 2020). This lack of information on gambling disorder and gambling-related harm has made it more difficult to understand and address gambling-related information and service needs (Fulton, 2019).…”

Managing Information Gaps and Non‐Information

“…It is often a major impediment to do whatever one desires or needs to accomplish, cause of anxiety and additional work. For example, Fulton shows how the lack of information is a major barrier to helping those vulnerable to harm from gambling (Fulton, 2019b). Missing (meta-)information metadata (Tenopir et al, 2015), and for instance, paradata (Huvila, 2022) is a barrier to data reuse that sometimes can be remedied by effective management and curation (Luong et al, 2021), sometimes through meticulous analysis of the data itself by using methods such as cognitive mapping (Fu et al, 2022) and critical data modelling (Wickett, 2023).…”