Newall Philip W S, Russell Alex M T, Sharman Steve, Walasek Lukasz
Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory, School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, CQUniversity, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
National Addictions Centre, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom; School of Psychology, University of East London, London E15 4LZ, United Kingdom.
Addict Behav. 2021 Mar;114:106685. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106685. Epub 2020 Oct 2.
The UK is rare in allowing a number of gambling forms to be used legally by children under the age of 18. Some previous research indicates that adult problem gamblers are more likely to recollect using these products as children. However, no research has as yet assessed recollected levels of use irrespective of adult gambling status, or investigated these issues in other countries. This is relevant given that at least two of the tested products, coin push machines and crane grab machines, exist in other countries. The present research involves cross-sectional surveys conducted amongst UK (N = 2010) and Australian adults (N = 640), associating recollected legal youth gambling usage with past 12-month gambling, and levels of problem gambling amongst adult gamblers. Adult gamblers recollected using more legal youth gambling products than non-gamblers. For example, 66.6% of UK gamblers reported legally buying National Lottery tickets aged 16-17, compared to 20.9% of UK non-gamblers; 60.8% of Australian gamblers reported using coin push machines as a child, compared to 48.6% of Australian non-gamblers. Overall, 18 of 19 tested associations were significant and in the hypothesized direction for the UK sample, compared to five of eight for the Australian sample. The legal provision of gambling to children is a topic for further international research and policy consideration.
英国在允许18岁以下儿童合法使用多种赌博形式方面较为罕见。此前的一些研究表明，成年问题赌徒更有可能回忆起自己小时候使用过这些产品。然而，尚无研究评估过不论成年赌博状况的回忆使用水平，也未在其他国家调查过这些问题。鉴于至少有两种受测产品——推币机和抓娃娃机——在其他国家也存在，这一点就很重要了。本研究涉及在英国成年人（N = 2010）和澳大利亚成年人（N = 640）中进行的横断面调查，将回忆起的合法青少年赌博使用情况与过去12个月的赌博情况以及成年赌徒中的问题赌博水平联系起来。成年赌徒回忆起使用的合法青少年赌博产品比非赌徒更多。例如，66.6%的英国赌徒报告称在16 - 17岁时合法购买过国家彩票，而英国非赌徒的这一比例为20.9%；60.8%的澳大利亚赌徒报告称小时候玩过推币机，而澳大利亚非赌徒的这一比例为48.6%。总体而言，在英国样本中，19个受测关联中有18个具有显著性且符合假设方向，而澳大利亚样本中8个关联里有5个是这样。向儿童合法提供赌博产品是一个需要进一步进行国际研究和政策考量的话题。
