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Review
. 2019 Feb 8;16(1):12.
doi: 10.1186/s12954-018-0265-3.

A mapping review of research on gambling harm in three regulatory environments

David G Baxter  1 , Margo Hilbrecht  2   3 , Cameron T J Wheaton  1
Affiliations
Review

A mapping review of research on gambling harm in three regulatory environments

David G Baxter et al. Harm Reduct J. .

Abstract

Background: Harmful gambling is a complex issue with diverse antecedents and resulting harms that have been studied from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Although previous bibliometric reviews of gambling studies have found a dominance of judgement and decision-making research, no bibliometric review has examined the concept of "harm" in the gambling literature, and little work has quantitatively assessed how gambling research priorities differ between countries.

Methods: Guided by the Conceptual Framework of Harmful Gambling (CFHG), an internationally relevant framework of antecedents to harmful gambling, we conducted a bibliometric analysis focusing on research outputs from three countries with different gambling regulatory environments: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Using a Web of Science database search, 1424 articles published from 2008 to 2017 were retrieved that could be mapped to the eight CFHG factors. A subsample of articles (n = 171) containing the word "harm" in the title, abstract, or keywords was then drawn. Descriptive statistics were used to examine differences between countries and trends over time with regard to CFHG factor and harm focus.

Results: Psychological and biological factors dominate gambling research in Canada whereas resources and treatment have received more attention in New Zealand. A greater percentage of Australia and New Zealand publications address the gambling environment and exposure to gambling than in Canada. The subset of articles focused on harm showed a stronger harms focus among New Zealand and Australian researchers compared to Canadian-authored publications.

Conclusions: The findings provide preliminary bibliometric evidence that gambling research foci may be shaped by jurisdictional regulation of gambling. Countries with privately operated gambling focused on harm factors that are the operators' responsibility, whereas jurisdictions with a public health model focused on treatment and harm reduction resources. In the absence of a legislated requirement for public health or harm minimisation focus, researchers in jurisdictions with government-operated gambling tend to focus research on factors that are the individual's responsibility and less on the harms they experience. Given increased international attention to gambling-related harm, regulatory and research environments could promote and support more diverse research in this area.

Keywords: Australia; Bibliometric analysis; Canada; Conceptual Framework of Harmful Gambling; Gambling harm; Mapping review; New Zealand.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of publications by province and framework factor (Canada). Distribution of Canadian gambling research articles from 2008 to 2017 (n = 750), divided by province of first Canadian coauthor. The area of each pie graph is proportional to the number of articles from the province
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of publications by state/territory and framework factor (Australia). Distribution of Australian gambling research articles from 2008 to 2017 (n = 612), divided by state/territory of first Australian coauthor. The area of each pie graph is proportional to the number of articles from the state/territory
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of publications by region and framework factor (New Zealand). Distribution of New Zealand gambling research articles from 2008 to 2017 (n = 62), divided by region of first New Zealand coauthor. The area of each pie graph is proportional to the number of articles from the region
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Total gambling studies publications mapped to the CFHG by country and year, 2008 to 2017
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Number of gambling studies publications mapped to each CFHG factor by year, 2008 to 2017
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Percentage of Canadian publications with a harm focus by province, 2008 to 2017. Distribution of Canadian gambling research articles from 2008 to 2017 (n = 750), with percentage of harm-focused articles indicated. Articles containing the word “harm” in the title, abstract, or keywords were considered harm-focused. The area of each pie graph is proportional to the number of articles from the province
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Percentage of Australian publications with a harm focus by state/territory, 2008 to 2017. Distribution of Australian gambling research articles from 2008 to 2017 (n = 612), with percentage of harm-focused articles indicated. Articles containing the word “harm” in the title, abstract, or keywords were considered harm-focused. The area of each pie graph is proportional to the number of articles from the state/territory
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Percentage of New Zealand publications with a harm focus by region, 2008 to 2017. Distribution of New Zealand gambling research articles from 2008 to 2017 (n = 62), with percentage of harm-focused articles indicated. Articles containing the word “harm” in the title, abstract, or keywords were considered harm-focused. The area of each pie graph is proportional to the number of articles from the region
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