The social costs associated with gambling are considerable. Social harms on individuals, families, and communities include financial hardship, family breakdown, reduced productivity at work or study, and criminal activity. Health-related gambling harms include headaches and nausea, stress, anxiety, and depression. There is growing consensus that gambling is a major public health issue. We set out how a social practice perspective to gambling research can generate different insights and help inform more nuanced and appropriate gambling harm reduction initiatives.

To achieve this, we suggest that research methods such as visual ethnography can be helpful. We call for a practice theory approach to gambling research that joins efforts to move beyond individual gamblers and their behaviour, to also acknowledge the interaction of multiple elements shaping gambling practices. In this article, we argue the case of recognising gambling as a social practice, the performance of which draws upon multiple elements such as technology and materials, spaces and places, language and discourse, and structures and agency. This is beginning to change, with a growing corpus of socio-cultural approaches to gambling research now emerging. Yet, research and policy approaches to the reduction of gambling harm are predominantly framed through psychological and economic models of individual behaviour, addiction, and ‘rational’ action.

Therefore, research is needed to inform appropriate gambling harm reduction strategies that can respond to this complex domain. Gambling is now practiced using new technologies, in various spaces and places, and features in a range of social surroundings. Recent developments in policy, practice and technology, such relaxation of regulations, the increasing influence of global gambling corporations, and the development of devices such as mobile phone apps and fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) mean that the landscape is a complex, dynamic, and fast moving one. Gambling is now a well-recognised public health issue and forms the focus of extensive harm reduction initiatives.

Ways around creating gambling apps