Harm Reduction for Gambling: A Public Health Approach

This edited volume aims to facilitate the evolution of the new public health approach towards gambling. Bringing together the work of international experts, it gives a current overview of the field, highlighting the need for a coordinated framework of prevention and harm reduction measures to replace current "player protection" measures. Chapters begin by exploring the impact of problem gambling, looking at its effects on several levels, ranging from the individual to the family and society. Subsequently an overview of prevention and harm reduction models is presented, bringing the reader to an in-depth understanding of what a public health approach to gambling would entail. Later chapters focus on potential challenges to monitoring and evaluation, inviting the reader to envisage possible barriers towards implementation and ways of overcoming these. The book concludes with recommendations on how to take a harm reduction approach, from a political and human rights perspective. This work gives a rare synopsis of the present-day issues when considering the implementation of a harm reduction strategy for gambling. Recent work by key professionals is presented in order to encourage further developments in this ever-changing domain. Such issues will be relevant to all those with an interest in the field of problem gambling, from clinicians, students and healthcare professionals, to politicians.

About the Author

Henrietta Bowden-Jones is a Medical Doctor specialised in Addiction Psychiatry. She is the Founder and Director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, UK and President of the Medical Women's Federation. She is an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College.

Cheryl Dickson has a Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology. She specialised post-qualification in the field of problem gambling and has worked since 2009 for the Centre du jeu excessif (Centre for Excessive Gambling), Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland.

Caroline Dunand is a Psychologist who has worked for over ten years as a Research Fellow at the Centre du jeu excessif (Centre for Excessive Gambling), Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland.

Olivier Simon is a Psychiatrist with a Master of Public Health Degree. He is Head of the Centre du jeu excessif (Centre for Excessive Gambling), Lausanne University Hospital, and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine at University of Lausanne, Switzerland.