Table 3 A taxonomy of harms experienced by communities
Financial Harm | Relationship Disruption, Conflict or Breakdown | Emotional or Psychological Distress | Decrements to Health |
• Increased reliance on welfare both community and government provided. • Increased levels of debt and bankruptcy (administration of these) • Broader impact to the community of business closures. • Perpetuation of poverty and welfare reliance from a generational perspective. • Redistribution of community funds through biased processes. • Impact on fundraising ventures for community organisations. | • Costs to the family law courts, and associated organisations. • Costs of caring for dependents no longer supported • Damage to social cohesion and social capital through isolation and exclusion. | • Decline in social and cultural capital. • Costs associated with provision of services to assist people with emotional and psychological harms • Burden of disease from related psychological harms • Harms to venue workers. | • Increased costs to the health system (direct and indirect) both in terms of treatment for gambling and costs associated with other medical conditions caused or exacerbated by gambling. |
Cultural Harm | Reduced Performance at Work or Study | Criminal Activity | Lifecourse or Intergenerational Harms |
• Community must make up for lost contributions (roles, time, finance) due to disconnection of members • Use of cultural norms and practices to promote gambling (disrespectful to the culture) • Exacerbation of hopelessness through negative narrative associating culture with gambling problems • Disconnection of youth (generational loss) | • Cost of job turnover, absenteeism. • Impact on employment at other businesses affected by gambling harm (ie. where a business closes and businesses that interacted with it lose sales). • Decreased participation in volunteering and other community activities. | • Direct costs of criminal activity in terms of the investigation of crime, costs to the judicial system, incarceration, probation and parole. • Cost to victims of crime both financial and emotional. | • Normalisation of gambling and gambling related harm • Cumulative impact of generational losses • Transgenerational loss creating dependency |