Gamblers’ Perceptions of Stakeholder Responsibility for Minimizing Gambling Harm

Abstract: Increasingly, industry operators and governments espouse the view that they play a role in minimizing gambling harm and have developed and implemented programs and policies designed to promote responsible gambling. However, little is known about gamblers’ perceptions of responsibility for minimizing gambling harm or whether these perceptions are linked to gamblers’ own experience of gambling harm. Gamblers’ perceptions of stakeholder responsibility for minimizing gambling harm could impact not only their gambling behavior but also the potential for legal action following excessive financial loss. We surveyed participants selected from MGM Resorts International (MGM)’s loyalty card database (N = 3,748) regarding their perceptions of responsibility for minimizing gambling harm. Additionally, we administered the Brief Biosocial Gambling Screen (BBGS). Compared to those who screened negative, participants who screened positive on the BBGS had more diffuse conceptions of responsibility for minimizing gambling harm and were more likely to hold 5 particular stakeholder groups (e.g., MGM Resorts employees, government regulators, public safety officials) responsible. In multivariate analyses, participants’ distributed sense of responsibility for reducing gambling harm predicted their BBGS status over and above other risk factors (i.e., Positive Play, understanding of gambling concepts, use of responsible gambling strategies). Implications: These results provide a rationale and framework for exploring causal pathways between perceptions of responsibility and gambling problems. If gamblers assume that casinos and other stakeholders will prevent them from experiencing excessive financial loss and other gambling problems, these perceptions might translate into riskier, less controlled gambling behavior