Understanding gambling through the Commercial Determinants of Health

The lens provided by the concept of the Commercial Determinants of Health (CDoH) is a relatively new way to understand the processes associated with commercial and business forces, and how they interact to significantly influence human health and wellbeing. CDoH are recognised as major factors in the current global pandemic of non-communicable disease, including diseases associated with obesity, mental health issues, and addictive substances including alcohol, tobacco, and of course gambling. Gambling and gaming are categorised in the ICD-11 as disorders due to addictive behaviours, and are DSM 5 classifies gambling under 'substance related and addictive disorders'. In Australia, the recent public debates around whether or not to prohibit gambling advertising provided an excellent case study of the tactics of the gambling ecosystem, in opposing such a prohibition and forestalling action. This project would use this as a case study of the ways in which the gambling ecosystem can bring pressure to bear on governments, and produce legislative and regulatory environments that allow them to continue to reap rewards from often exploitive commercial practices. In this context, the 'gambling ecosystem' refers to those entities who derive significant revenue from gambling operations, and includes gambling operators, broadcasters and other media who carry gambling advertising and marketing, sporting bodies who derive a proportion of gambling revenues, other infrastructure providers including software and platform developers, well-known individuals who derive income from gambling promotion and endorsements, and of course governments, for whom gambling provides considerable revenue - over $7 billion to state and territory governments in 2023. Analysis of these relationships, and of the way in which there were leveraged to protect the ecosystem members from the effects of regulation, forms the core of this project. It will contribute to the groth of the CDoH field, and forms a highly relevant case study focused on the way that industry ecosystems leverage power to retain control of government regulatory systems and thus protect their interests, at the expense of the broader population.