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Much Ado About Nothing? The Role of Land-Based Gambling Venue Employees in Facilitating Problem Gambling Harm Reduction and Help-Seeking

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journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-24, 05:37 authored by Ben J Riley, Sharon Lawn, Beth CrispBeth Crisp, Malcolm Battersby
AbstractOver the past decade, greater emphasis has been placed on the role of the land-based gambling industry to respond to problem gambling behaviour in their venues. Despite this, there is a lack of clear information advising best practice responses by gambling venue employees. This article reviews strategies, practices, and policies employed by land-based gambling venues concerning their employees’ role in preventing gambling-related harm and responding to problem gambling behaviours. A systematic search strategy was applied to source peer-reviewed literature which identified 49 articles. The synthesised results were arranged and presented across five categories: (1) the identification of gamblers with potential problems in the venue; (2) gambling venue staff responses to gamblers with potential problems; (3) gamblers’ perspectives around venue responsibilities and interactions with gamblers with potential problems; (4) corporate social responsibility programs and the identification of gamblers with problems in the venue; and (5) gambling venue staff needs. The results suggest that most activity performed by venue staff concerning their response to problem gambling is limited to observing and documenting risky behaviours and then discussing this internally with other venue staff. Action which moves beyond this, such as approaching and interacting with identified gamblers of concern, rarely occurs. The results of this review suggest that a focus on the identification and intervention specifically with identified gamblers of concern is a particularly unhelpful aspect of the role of venue staff. The results also indicate that a re-thinking of the role frontline staff play in addressing problem gambling is necessary.

History

Journal

Journal of Gambling Studies

Volume

40

Pagination

387-408

Location

Berlin, Germany

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

1050-5350

eISSN

1573-3602

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Issue

1

Publisher

Springer

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