Open AccessGambling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Risks and Change Among Finnish Gamblers
Author(s) -
Virve Marionneau,
Johanna Järvinen-Tassopoulos,
Tuulia Lerkkanen
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of gambling issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.341
H-Index - 12
ISSN - 1910-7595
DOI - 10.4309/jgi.2022.49.11
Subject(s) - pandemic , covid-19 , context (archaeology) , consumption (sociology) , psychology , public health , environmental health , medicine , sociology , geography , virology , nursing , social science , disease , archaeology , pathology , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty)
This brief report presents results on how gamblers have experienced risks and change during the exceptional situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is based on online questionnaires collected by the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Association for Substance Use Prevention (N = 586). Results show that the reduced availability of gambling in the Finnish context has limited its total consumption. The risk of gambling-related harms has therefore become less pressing during the pandemic. Although gambling is a public health risk in addition to being a harmful activity for the individual, the policy measures during the pandemic have revealed that, at a societal level, the risk of infection with COVID-19 was perceived as being a more serious problem than was the risk of gambling harms.