Declaration of interests. SX has received academic fees from Gambling Research Exchange Ontario. HSK has received funding and scholarships from the Alberta Gambling Research Institute and has received academic fees from Gambling Research Exchange Ontario. LC is the Director of the Centre for Gambling Research at UBC, which is supported by funding from the Province of British Columbia and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), a Canadian Crown Corporation. The Province of BC government and the BCLC had no role in the design, analysis, or interpretation of the study, and impose no constraints on publishing. LC has received a speaker/travel honorarium from the National Association for Gambling Studies (Australia) and the National Center for Responsible Gaming (US), and has received fees for academic services from the National Center for Responsible Gaming (US), GambleAware (UK), and Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (Canada). He has not received any further direct or indirect payments from the gambling industry or groups substantially funded by gambling. He has received royalties from Cambridge Cognition Ltd. relating to neurocognitive testing. MW has received research funding from

Objective. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the closure of licensed casinos throughout North America in Spring 2020. This study sought to examine how gamblers responded to the COVID-19 lockdown, including migration to online gambling, and changes in substance use and use of other technologies. Method. We conducted an online cross-sectional study of US residents. 424 individuals with past three months gambling involvement were surveyed on 9 April 2020. Self-reported changes in online gambling and other addictive behaviors since the onset of COVID-19, problem gambling severity, and readiness to change were measured. Results. Overall, online gambling decreased following the onset of COVID-19 casino closures, t(220)=-2.87, p=0.003, 95%CI [-0.546, -0.101], d=0.193, while alcohol, p<0.001, tobacco, p=0.001, and cannabis use, p=0.01, increased among gamblers. Among gamblers who reported no online gambling involvement prior to COVID-19, 15% reported migrating to online gambling under lockdown. These migrators had higher levels of problem gambling, F=37.7, p<0.001, 𝜂2=0.152, and lower income, F=5.50, p=0.004, 𝜂2=0.025, than gamblers who had never gambled online. Conclusions. The response to COVID-19 is heterogeneous: in the short-term, the majority of gamblers reported reducing their online gambling, but increasing their substance use. A minority of gamblers appear to have substituted casino gambling with online gambling. As these individuals are characterized by problem gambling symptoms and lower income, they may be considered a vulnerable group.

Aims: Money is central to psychological definitions of gambling, but contemporary accounts of disordered gambling are ambiguous regarding the role of financial motives for gambling. The aims of the current research were to obtain meta-analytic weighted effect sizes for zeroorder associations of financial motives against disordered gambling and gambling frequency, as well as partial associations after controlling for other motives (e.g. coping). Design:A meta-analysis of the available literature through October 2019 was undertaken. Studies were identified from multiple sources (e.g., database search, consulting other researchers). PRISMA standards were followed when screening identified records and extracting relevant data. The data analytic plan was pre-registered.Setting: Cross-sectional studies that involved student, community, and clinical samples of people who gamble.Participants: Forty-one studies were included with 32,997 participants from different countries.Measurements: Validated self-report measures of financial motives for gambling alongside measures of either problem gambling and/or gambling frequency.Findings: Financial motives for gambling were positively associated with both disordered gambling, r = .34, [.30, .38], p =1.04 e-61 , and gambling frequency, r = .29, [.20, .37], p = 1.70 e-13 , with moderate effect sizes. The partial associations after controlling for overlapping variance with other gambling motives were also positive (disordered gambling: β = .18, [.14, .23], p = 2.53 e-15 ; gambling frequency: β = .16, [.08, .24], p = 9.45 e-5 ), with small-to-moderate effect sizes. The effect sizes were heterogenous and the extent of heterogeneity was high. Moderator analyses of the zero-order association involving gambling frequency indicated that effect sizes were larger for studies that used the Gambling Motives Questionnaire-Financial relative to studies that developed their own gambling motives measure. No further moderators were statistically significant.Conclusions: Financial motives are reliably and positively associated with both disordered gambling and gambling involvement and should be incorporated into etiological models of gambling disorder.

This report supports an evidence-based approach to the prevention and education objective of the National Strategy to Reduce Harm from Gambling. Applying a public health policy lens, it considers three levels of measures: universal (for the benefit of the whole population), selective (for the benefit of at-risk groups), and indicated (for the benefit of at-risk individuals). Six measures are reviewed by drawing upon a range of evidence in the academic and grey literature. The universal level measures are “Regulatory restriction on how gambling is provided” and “Population-based safer gambling/responsible gambling efforts.” Selective measures focus on age cohorts in a chapter entitled, “Targeted safer gambling campaigns for children, youth, and older adults.” The indicated measures are “Brief internet delivered interventions for gambling,” “Systems and tools that produced actual (‘hard’) barriers and limit access to funds,” and “Self-exclusion.” Since the quantity and quality of the evidence base varied by measure, appropriate review methods were selected to assess publications using a systematic, scoping, or narrative approach. Some measures offered consistent findings regarding the effectiveness of interventions and initiatives, while others were less clear. Unintended consequences were noted since it is important to be aware of unanticipated, negative consequences resulting from prevention and education activities. After reviewing the evidence, authors identified knowledge gaps that require further research, and provided guidance for how the findings could be used to enhance the prevention and education objective. The research evidence is supplemented by consultations with third sector charity representatives who design and implement gambling harm prevention and education programmes. Their insights and experiences enhance, support, or challenge the academic evidence base, and are shared in a separate chapter. Overall, research evidence is limited for many of the measures. Quality assessments suggest that improvements are needed to support policy decisions more fully. Still, opportunities exist to advance evidence-based policy for an effective gambling harm prevention and education plan.

Two studies examine whether income volatility might lead to greater personal financial insecurity and might create a decision environment that discourages planning ahead on personal finances. In Study 1 (N = 982), participants who reported more month-to-month variability in their actual income were less likely to have planned for financial contingencies. A lower internal locus of control partially mediated the link between volatility and financial planning decisions in Study 1, and lower internal locus of economic control predicted financial planning decisions independently of volatility. In Study 2 (N = 149), participants who were randomly assigned to receive volatile (vs. stable) payments in a simulated work environment were less likely to save their compensation for this work. Again, lower internal locus of economic control predicted financial planning decisions independently of volatility. This is the first study to demonstrate a causal link between income volatility and financial decisions, specifically a heightened tendency to make short-term financial decisions. Both studies also underlined the importance of internal locus of control for financial planning decisions.