Crypto News: Gambling away your mental health

Hi, it's Karoline in Singapore. Gambling is often associated with financial ruin, but what's less known is its toll on mental health. Before I explain...

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I always find it strange that as I travel around Asia, people casually suggest a fun outing to a casino — with the same offhandedness as if they were suggesting a karaoke bar or pub.

Commercial gambling has been expanding in a number of Asian countries to lure foreign tourists, boost local economies and create jobs. Here in Singapore, Las Vegas Sands plans to expand its iconic casino resort to include a new luxury gaming complex. The Philippines has ambitions to overtake this city-state as Asia's second-biggest gambling destination. And in well-established regional gaming hub Macau, revenue surged during China's recent Golden Week holiday.

With so many commercial plans afoot, it's easy to ignore the toll gambling takes on players. But it's not just the potential for financial ruin, which has been well-examined: More and more is coming out about the mental impact. The latest is a starkly-worded report published by The Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling, which warned that the activity poses real threats to public health.

The commission estimated that almost 80 million adults globally suffer from problematic gambling or a full-fledged gambling disorder, a mental health condition in which gaming becomes an addition and interferes with peoples' lives. Commercial gambling brings risks of suicide, domestic violence and loss of employment — and it could ruin relationship and break families, the report said. The commission's research is part of a program through which Lancet editors work with academic partners to identify the most pressing issues in health, and provide recommendations in policy.

A particularly dangerous development is the rapid expansion of online gambling, which is more accessible. Young people face greater risks betting online than adults because they're more exposed to the industry's advertisements, according to the Lancet report. What's worse, gambling is often embedded into video games. Roughly a quarter of adolescents who use online casino or slot products are affected by gambling disorder, as are 16% who gamble using sports betting products, the report said.

"We know that early exposure to gambling increases the risk of developing gambling disorders later in life," Dr. Kristiana Siste, of the psychiatry department at Universitas Indonesia and one of the Lancet report's experts, said in a statement. "Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the allure of easy money and the game-like designs of online gambling."

In Australia, a University of Queensland study found that people with a high risk of gambling and alcohol issues are being "force fed" ads for gaming-related content on Facebook, The Guardian wrote on Monday.

Online gambling can also easily reach customers in places where the activity is illegal, like in mainland China. And poorer countries are less equipped to regulate the industry and deal with the harms it creates, the Lancet commission's research added.

"Anyone with a mobile phone now has access to what is essentially a casino in their pocket, 24 hours a day. Highly sophisticated marketing and technology make it easier to start, and harder to stop," Professor Heather Wardle, the commission's co-chair and a specialist in gambling research at the University of Glasgow, said in a statement.

The next time I'm invited to a casino floor, I'll very much be remembering the havoc it wreaks. — Karoline Kan

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