Measuring Gambling Harms: a systematic review and review of challenges

The main method for surveillance of gambling harms is through national prevalence surveys, focusing on measuring the experience of gambling disorder. The presentation discusses the limitations and challenges of this approach which are complicated by disagreements over what to count and how to count it. Despite this, this presentation will present results of a systematic review of what is currently known about the prevalence of gambling disorder globally.
A systematic review and meta analysis of random probability studies measuring gambling harms globally will be presented. This highlights a lack of even basic monitoring and surveillance globally, with only a minority of countries worldwide having data on this despite more than 80% of jurisdictions globally permitting some form of commercial gambling. Results will be presented overall, by product, by region and for youth/children. 
The presentation will discuss the limitations of the current monitoring and surveillance systems for understanding, measuring and quantifying gambling harms. Drawing on comparisons with systems developed for drug use and other addictive behaviours, suggestions for change will be made.