Gambling involves placing something of value on an uncertain event with the intent to win some other item of value. The most common form of gambling is betting on sports events or games of chance, such as poker, blackjack, or roulette. It can also involve social activities, such as placing bets on football or horse races with friends or coworkers, though these types of bets tend to be informal and small in scale.
Some people gamble for the thrill of winning, while others do so to escape from their daily worries or problems. Studies have shown that gambling can trigger feelings of euphoria in the brain, largely because it causes the release of dopamine. However, it is important to note that compulsive gambling can lead to severe financial difficulties and may damage personal health and relationships.
At the societal level, positive impacts can include increased gambling revenues and reduced expenditures on public services. In addition, community-wide gambling can provide a recreational activity that fosters social cohesion and community awareness. In the same vein, gambling can serve as a tool for teaching math skills such as probability, statistics, and risk management.
Negative impacts often stem from a lack of established methods for measuring non-monetary benefits and costs. Specifically, the methodology for assessing social impacts has been lacking. In particular, the concept of ‘social costs’ and ‘benefits’ has been interpreted differently by different authors. For example, Williams et al. [32] defines a social cost as an impact that aggregates societal real wealth and benefits no one, while Walker and Barnett define it as an impact that affects a group rather than an individual.