Social Work and Social Policy, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.
Department of Social Inquiry, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2022 May 4;22(1):884. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12954-y.
Bingo is often understood as a low-harm form of gambling. This view has been challenged by a growing body of literature identifying gambling harm to bingo players in a range of countries. In this study, we aimed to identify which conditions enabled, facilitated, intensified or mitigated gambling harm for bingo players in three populations in Victoria in the context of corporate, technological and regulatory changes.
Our qualitative study investigated experiences of bingo-related gambling harm in three populations in Victoria, Australia where bingo was popular and structural disadvantage common: Indigenous people in the east, Pacific people in the state's north and older people on low or fixed incomes in the capital. Data was generated through interviews with 53 bingo players and 13 stakeholders as well as 12 participant observations of bingo sessions.
We found that while bingo is overwhelmingly positive for many players, a minority of bingo players and their families experience notable harm. Harm was generated through traditional paper-based bingo games, new technologies such as tablet-based bingo and by the widespread tactic of placing bingo sessions in close proximity to harmful electronic gambling machines. Overall, the risk of harm to bingo players appears to be escalating due to commercial, technological and regulatory changes.
These changes can be better managed by regulators: reforms are needed to safeguard bingo's distinct character as a lower-risk form of gambling at a time when it, and its players, are under threat. Significantly, we found that harm to bingo players is intensified by factors external to gambling such as racialised poverty and adverse life events. Strategies that recognise these factors and grapple with gambling harm to bingo players are needed.
宾果游戏通常被理解为一种低危害形式的赌博。越来越多的文献表明，宾果游戏在多个国家的玩家中造成了赌博危害，这一观点对上述观点提出了挑战。在这项研究中，我们旨在确定在维多利亚州的三个群体中，哪些条件使宾果玩家面临、促进、加剧或减轻赌博危害，同时考虑到企业、技术和监管变革的背景。
我们的定性研究调查了澳大利亚维多利亚州三个群体中与宾果相关的赌博危害的经历，这些群体中宾果游戏很受欢迎，结构性劣势普遍存在：东部的原住民、北部的太平洋岛民以及首都地区收入低或固定的老年人。通过对 53 名宾果玩家和 13 名利益相关者的访谈以及对 12 次宾果游戏的现场观察，收集了数据。
我们发现，尽管宾果游戏对许多玩家来说是压倒性的积极体验，但少数宾果玩家及其家人却经历了显著的伤害。危害是通过传统的纸质宾果游戏、新的技术（如基于平板电脑的宾果游戏）以及广泛采用的将宾果游戏安排在靠近有害电子赌博机的策略产生的。总的来说，由于商业、技术和监管变革，宾果玩家面临的风险似乎在加剧。
监管机构可以更好地管理这些变化：在宾果及其玩家受到威胁的时候，需要进行改革来保护宾果作为一种低风险赌博形式的独特特征。值得注意的是，我们发现宾果玩家的伤害受到种族化贫困和负面生活事件等外部因素的加剧。需要采取策略来认识到这些因素，并应对宾果玩家的赌博伤害。
