‘The House Always Wins’ is the title given to a new research paper produced by Dr John McMullan, a sociologist from the Faculty of Arts at Saint Mary’s University in Canada. Claimed as a ground breaking study on the gambling problem in Canada, his work recommends reforms in public policy to address player protection measures, sequestration practices, consumer awareness, advertising controls and precautionary prevention. Dr McMullan suggests that governments and the gambling industry should work together to ensure the viability of the industry while protecting the well-being of citizens.

That the House always wins in the long term could never be disputed, although it is by no means unheard of for casinos to fail in the same way as any other business meeting insuperable odds or bad management. Without the House edge the gaming industry could support neither its workers nor those employed in peripheral industries. That there is little altruism to be found in the boardrooms of gaming companies concerned with their profits and shareholder dividends is hardly surprising. Notwithstanding the many worthy causes supported by multinational companies they are also not noted for their altruism, whether selling powdered milk to third-world mothers or opting for research into profitable cures for first-world illnesses rather than into the uneconomic ills of millions. The business must always come first and foremost, and the gambling industry is no better or worse than others.

That said, many of the large players in the gaming industry have long had safeguards in place to tackle problem gambling among their clients and programmes to train staff to recognize the symptoms. However, it is perhaps not at casinos where the severest negative effects of gambling can be found. The Canadian VLTs, the Australian pokies and Britain’s FOBTs are all causing high levels of concern to those involved in the treatment of gambling addiction. It is these electronic machines that today, as Dr McMullan states, are spinning longer, more often and for higher amounts. He goes on to say, “At a certain time during a day in Canada almost half of the players in VLT sites are problem gamblers.”

Some solutions proposed by the research paper include mass marketing and less reliance on the exploitation of vulnerable customers from a small client base; cashless gambling with strong consumer protection measures such as smart cards; responsible advertising and enlightened and honest consumer education; effective self-exclusion and genuine community consultation and collaboration; and new ethics for healthy gambling that put precautionary principles before profit making. All worthy aims, but perhaps far greater emphasis should be placed on education – and education from a young age.

By the time a gambler is old enough to legally gamble it is probably too late to push the informed and educated angle on decision making. With more leisure time, more access to money and little incentive for making saving a way of life, it is only to be expected that gambling is on the rise. State and national governments across the world have been happy to benefit from taxes on gambling activities whilst providing little support for treatment of those who become problem gamblers or for educational programmes.

The study of problem gambling, its causes and its effects, has been researched, re-researched and expounded upon innumerable times and in innumerable places worldwide, and yet there is no real argument against the premises or the findings. The only variables are the demographics involved and whether the resultant statistics are interpreted from a pro- or anti- gambling stance.

Just as each government must decide whether or not to legalize gambling and what regulations to impose, so must they ensure that both they and the gambling industry make adequate provision for the minority problem gamblers. Gambling will exist whether it is regulated or not, and the majority of people will indulge in a pastime that gives them a buzz, entertainment and fun without selling the family silver. Get gambling education into schools, provide funding for the treatment of gambling addicts and have a good regulatory gambling infrastructure, then the thorny question of gambling may become less of a problem. (E-04.22.05)

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