Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 78, March 2018, Pages 101-106
Addictive Behaviors

Industry interests in gambling research: Lessons learned from other forms of hazardous consumption

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.11.007Get rights and content

Highlights

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    There is growing concern about industry influences on gambling research, as well as proponents who downplay the risks and negative consequences.

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    Literature on tobacco and alcohol shows how industries used research to create doubt and divert attention from the role of products in causing harm.

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    This literature also highlights ways in which industry can exert control over research and mask involvement through third-party organisations.

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    There is preliminary evidence of analogous influences of industry on the agenda for gambling research and use of third-party techniques.

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    Indications of parallel practices across industries support precautionary approaches to vested interests in gambling research.

Abstract

Research indicates that the evidential bases for many harm reduction policies targeting hazardous consumptions (including tobacco, alcohol and gambling) have been distorted by commercial industries that derive revenue from such commodities. These distortions are best illustrated by research on tobacco and alcohol, which indicates similar tactics used by industries to determine favourable policy environments through engineering of evidence, among other approaches. Although there is concern that gambling research is similarly vulnerable to commercial interests, the relevant literature lags far behind other fields and the aim of this paper is to increase familiarity with tactics used by industries for influencing research. It summarises the conceptual and empirical bases for expecting conflicts between goals of public health and companies that profit from hazardous consumptions. It also summarises evidence describing practices deployed by tobacco corporations, which include third-party techniques and the selective funding of research to manufacture doubt and deflect attention away from the consequences of smoking. It then reviews both early and emerging evidence indicating similar strategies used by alcohol industry, and uses this literature to view practices of the gambling industry. It argues that parallels regarding selective funding of research and third-party techniques provide grounds for strong concern about commercial influences on gambling research, and implementation of precautionary approaches to management of vested interests.

Section snippets

Background

Recent decades have been characterised by expansions in the availability of gambling products and services (Delfabbro and King, 2012, Orford, 2012, Petry and Blanco, 2013, Smith, 2014), which have provided for growth in participation and behaviours that precede gambling-related harms (Wardle, Griffiths, Orford, Moody, & Volberg, 2012). These contribute towards substantial burdens on public health, which are comparable in some regards to other hazardous or addictive behaviours (e.g., alcohol

Hazardous consumptions and conflicts of interest

There are long-standing public health concerns about practices of industries of hazardous consumption (Adams, 2016, Moodie et al., 2013), which include tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods and gambling. Underlying these concerns are conflicts between goals of public health and the economic objectives of companies that profit from consumption. These conflicts are arguably greatest when commodities possess addictive potential, given that individuals experiencing harm or addiction will

Tobacco research and recognition of an industrial epidemic

The consequences of conflicts between economic and public health agendas have been illustrated by internal documents from the tobacco industry, which were released following litigation against companies in the 1990s (Bero, 2003). These documents provided data for emerging research on effects of corporate behaviours on health, which have been described in terms of ‘industrial epidemics’ (encompassing a view of some corporations as disease vectors that account for the spread of health-related

Following in their footsteps: Strategies of other industries of hazardous consumption

In the absence of internal documents from other industries (as is the case of tobacco produced from litigation and media investigations) (Kalra, Bansal, Wilson, & Lasseter, 2017), there is less recognition of corporate practices and responses to health policies. However, there is evidence from alternative methodologies (e.g., analyses of public documents, stakeholder interviews) (McCambridge, Hawkins, & Holden, 2014) which indicates that some such industries are adopting similar strategies in

Industry interests in gambling research

In the context of ongoing expansions in gambling technologies and industries, there has been less attention to industry practices and little systematic data is available. Nonetheless, there are growing concerns about commercial influences (Adams, 2011, Livingstone and Adams, 2016, Young, 2013a), which mainly emphasise the impacts of funding on the agenda for research, and bias towards studies of problem gambling behaviours and pathologies (including appraisals of prevalence and interventions

Conclusions

Indications of parallel practices across hazardous consumption industries provide grounds for strong concern about commercial influences on gambling research. They contradict claims that such concerns comprise ‘conspiracy theories’ (Delfabbro & King, 2017) which thus lack credible bases. However, there remains a need for further empirical analyses of gambling industry tactics, including through stakeholder interviews, documentary analyses of industry material, and systematic reviews comparing

Role of funding sources

This paper did not receive any specific funding from agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Contributors

Sean Cowlishaw prepared the manuscript and received critical input from Samantha Thomas. Both authors revised the final version and were responsible for the decision to submit.

Conflicts of interest

Sean Cowlishaw has received funding from UK sources including the Avon Primary Care Research Collaborative, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Economic and Social Research Council. Further sources include agencies that are funded primarily by government departments (including through hypothecated taxes on gambling revenue) to fund gambling research, including the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation (Australia) and the Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (Canada). Sean

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