Problem gambling is a severe mental health issue. Both New Zealand and International evidence agree that some groups within populations are more vulnerable to developing problematic gambling behaviours than others. Within New Zealand, Pacific people have been identified as the most at-risk ethnic group of becoming problem gamblers. In New Zealand, 46% of problem gamblers had psychological disorders. Among problematic gamblers, almost 38% had mood disorders and 37% had anxiety disorders. Additionally, substance use has been shown to co-occur with gambling and mental health problems 43, 97,98,99. The causality of these health consequences is not clear because gambling. The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand is a charity that works towards creating a society free from discrimination, where all people enjoy positive mental health & wellbeing. We work to influence individuals, whanau, organisations and communities to improve and sustain their mental health and reach their full potential. Table 4-1: Gambling expenditure in the four main sectors between 2009/10 and 2014/15 44 Table 4-2: Past-year gambling participation among New Zealand adults (weighted%, estimated number of people in the 2016 New Zealand population) 45 Table 4-3: Past-year participation in gambling, by ethnicity and age group, 2006/07 to 2016 48. Mental health problems; Suicide. Measures to limit problem gambling A key intention of the Gambling Act 2003 is controlling the growth of gambling, and preventing and minimising the harm caused by gambling. To support this, the Gambling (Harm Prevention and Minimisation) Regulations, last amended in March 2015, contain a range of measures.
This book looks ahead and asks where the increased reliance on profits from gambling is leading in the long term. It argues that the rapid commercial expansion of gambling through modern Western democracies can be likened to the commercial expansion of other primary exploitative industries such as native forest logging in countries like Indonesia and Brazil. Both expansions are propelled through the interlocked interests of governments, international companies, and local entrepreneurs. While widespread native logging results in multilayered impacts on natural ecology, intensified gambling consumption results in complex impacts on the social and political ecologies. Furthermore, advances in new technologies are opening up the opportunities for exploitation on scales that were never possible before. As the chainsaw enabled vast tracts of native forests to fall, so the proliferation of poker machine lures increasing numbers of people into regular use. The profits generated by increased consumption establish and reinforce a network of relationships that are increasingly reliant on these profits. Key recipients include industry employees, government agencies, political bodies, media organisations, community groups, charities, gambling helping organisations and researchers. The book looks closely at how relationships to the profits from gambling create environments that generate conflicts of interest that in the long run discourage active and critical participation in democratic systems.