The Australian government and gambling industry promote responsible gambling through advertisements, signage, and other media channels. Their messages aim to reduce harms from gambling by encouraging a range of behaviours. These include setting limit on how much to gamble, maintaining control, and self-monitoring. These messages often emphasize the individual role of gamblers in being responsible, rather than the practices by the government or the gambling industry. Some critics are concerned that the focus on personal responsibility may increase stigma towards problem gamblers.
There are two kinds of stigma: (1) felt stigma which refers to internal feelings, such as shame and guilt, experienced by problem gamblers; and (2) enacted stigma which involves discrimination against problem gamblers. The current study investigated how responsible gambling messages influenced the ways that people with a gambling problem felt about their gambling experiences. It also explored whether responsible gambling messages contributed to felt or enacted stigma.
