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The environment in which an individual lives can have an impact on the nature and frequency of gambling activity, which also impacts the degree of resulting gambling-related harm. In this section we discuss the gambling environment, which covers a broad set of factors ranging from economics, socio-political environment, public policy, socio-political environment, and culture of social responsibility.
To date there has not been sustained research attention to links among factors related to the gambling environment and levels of harmful gambling. This arises, at least in part, from the fact that government and industry resources dedicated to reducing harm from gambling have largely been focused at the individual level rather than at the community or societal level. A systematic review of socioeconomic impact studies of gambling identified 492 studies (only 60% of these were empirical investigations), which primarily examined government revenue, employment, harmful gambling, and non-gambling business revenue (Williams, Rehm, & Stevens, 2011). Fewer than 10% of the studies examined impacts in the areas of regulatory costs, infrastructure, quality of life, inequality, property values, or business starts and failures. Consequently, more empirical investigations are needed on the macroeconomic, microeconomic, and socio-political forces that shape gambling provision.
Gambling is a commercial activity that is largely controlled and regulated by governments but also driven to some extent by complex market forces that determine supply and demand, and ultimately, the nature, availability, and accessibility of various forms of gambling within a specific jurisdiction. However, the practices and procedures adopted by the industry in developing, configuring, advertising, and marketing gambling products are too often at odds with responsible gambling objectives. State-owned gambling companies have to meet the challenge of balancing responsible provision of gambling - which in the European Community (EC) legislative framework is one of the acceptable reasons for national restrictions of the gambling market - and commercialism, which enables competition with foreign-based, privately-owned Internet gambling companies. Economic tensions exist between the commercial reality of intra- and inter-gambling sector competition and community pressures to reduce gambling-related harms on individuals, families, and the wider society.
The extent to which individuals are exposed to various forms of gambling within a community will dictate the proportion of the population at risk of, and manifesting, gambling-related harms. Exposure is dependent upon a number of factors that include the geographic distribution and density of gambling outlets, the physical characteristics of venues (including attractiveness, safety, and social acceptability of venue surroundings), the types of gambling products offered at venues, and the kinds of ancillary recreational facilities co-located with gambling venues. These concepts are discussed in detail in Gambling Exposure.
There is evidence indicating that gambling harm is more common in proximity to available land-based gambling venues. Further, research reveals an almost linear relationship between density of gaming machines and disadvantaged socio-economic regions. Changes that may contribute to reduced harms include reducing per capita density of gaming machines and gambling outlets, restricting distribution of gambling opportunities to a limited number of venues, restricting trading hours, and limiting smoking or the provision of alcohol to gambling patrons.