Do gambling products provide positive net utility to consumers?

Gambling has recreational benefits, but also harms some players. Two novel methods were adapted from the Burden of Disease (BoD) approach, the Time-Trade Off and Visual Analogue Scale, to measure both positive and negative contributions of gambling to people\u27s quality of life. A population-representative sample of 5000 Tasmanians (2534 female) were surveyed on both gambling benefits and harms, which included respondents who were gamblers and people affected by someone else\u27s gambling. Most gamblers indicated that gambling neither improved nor hindered their quality of life on the two measures (82.5% and 72.6%, respectively). Including responses from both gamblers and affected others, a weighted average of the change in quality of life was calculated for the average Tasmanian. Using the two BoD methods, gambling showed either a very small gain (+0.05%) or a more dramatic net-utility loss (-1.9%) on a per capita basis. On current evidence, gambling produces little or negative net benefits to Tasmanians in terms of consumer surplus