Accessibility, local socioeconomic disadvantage and expenditure on electronic gambling machines

Background

This presentation discusses the associations between the physical accessibility of electronic gambling machines (EGMs), EGM expenditure and local level socioeconomic status (SES) in the Helsinki area, in Finland. Of the various gambling products, electronic gambling machines (EGMs) have been shown to be amongst the most harmful forms of gambling, mainly due to structural features of EGMs such as speed, near misses and high event frequency combined with attractive audiovisual elements. High accessibility of EGMs is a public health concern.

Methods

The data consists of player account-based gambling data on all EGM players in the study area and grid-level SES data. The analyses are based on a gravity model, a spatial autocorrelation analysis, and regression models.

Results

Several clusters of vulnerable neighborhoods with both high EGM accessibility and high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage were identified. The average expenditure per adult was associated with neighborhood SES and accessibility.

Conclusions

From the point of view of public health and gambling harm prevention, it is necessary to take seriously the spatial concentration of gambling opportunities in vulnerable neighborhoods. The implications of these results highlight that to protect people living in the most vulnerable areas the accessibility of EGMs needs to be regulated with a view to public health and harm prevention.