The Relationship Between Gambling and Homelessness: A Commentary on Sharman et al. (2014)

Griffiths, M.D. ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524, 2015. The Relationship Between Gambling and Homelessness: A Commentary on Sharman et al. (2014). Journal of Gambling Studies, 31 (4), pp. 1153-1159. ISSN 1050-5350

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Abstract

The relationship between problem gambling and homelessness is a little studied area in the gambling studies field. A recent study in the Journal of Gambling Studies by Sharman, Dreyer, et al (2014) is the first quantitative study in Great Britain on this interesting and important topic. In this context, the study is to be commended and provides an empirical benchmark on which other studies can build. The study reported a problem gambling prevalence rate of 11.6% and is significantly higher than the problem gambling rate of the general population in Great Britain (which is less than 1%). However, given the political sensitivity surrounding the expansion of bookmakers in the UK, the study needs further contextualization otherwise the findings of such studies may be used by anti-gambling lobby groups to serve their own political agendas. While it is good that such an area has been empirically investigated in Great Britain, this paper briefly (i) places the issue of problem gambling among the homeless into the wider context of problems among the homeless more generally (particularly in relation to mental health problems and other addictive behaviors), (ii) highlights some of the methodological problems and weaknesses of the study, and (iii) notes a number of factual errors made in the paper.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Journal of Gambling Studies
Creators: Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher: Springer
Date: 2015
Volume: 31
Number: 4
ISSN: 1050-5350
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1007/s10899-014-9491-0DOI
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: Linda Sullivan
Date Added: 18 Jan 2016 11:11
Last Modified: 09 Jun 2017 13:58
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26804

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