High Rates Of Gambling Addiction

Study Finds High Rates Of Gambling Addiction In Germany

A new report entitled “The Gambling Atlas” published concerning data’s on gambling dependency in Germany which opens the eyes of the authorities and health care providers to the issues they are facing. Based on the presented research where the data was collected in 2021, 1 300 000 Germans are considered to have a gambling disorder, and 3 300 000 respondents displayed first symptoms of this disease.

According to Federal Drugs Commissioner Burkhard Blienert who filed the report, 30 percent of adults in Germany practice gambling. Although this percentage is still lower than such figure observed in 2007 (55%), the study discovered that 7.7% of the adults suffer from financial, social, or health issues due to the addiction. More so, these findings expose the increased barriers that German authorities experience when combating gambling harm even with the recent reforms.

Commissioner Blienert focused on the negative aspects of gambling and said: ‘People don’t get happy while gambling’. Even Christina Rummel from the German Center for Addiction Issues (DHS) said the same thing: ‘Gambling is a disease.’ The simplistic reduction of gambling addiction to a health problem aggravates the problem of its improper or ineffective regulation.

These figures are released at a rather sensitive period for the gambling industry in Germany considering that this market has recently been through several changes. The State Treaty on Gambling signed in 2021 intended to reduce the risk associated with gambling by legalisinginternet gambling in all of the 16 federal states. However, the efficacy of these interventions to preventing addiction or to safeguarding ‘at-risk’ players continues to be questioned.

Actual and potential future players, including industry specialists and policy makers, are caught in the dilemma of asserting consumers’ protection on one hand and providing market requirements on the other. Under the current rules, any deposit, stake, or feature, must strictly follow a set ceiling to reduce the probability of addiction as much as possible. However, such measures have also been condemned for a potential to create an environment that may push players into black market operators who offer better odds with no protection.

The DSWV has referred to Germany’s landscape as the “world’s most restrained,” due to a massive drop in tax receipts from legal sports betting. This decrease from €55m to €10m a month has been said to be caused by players moving to offshore or unregulated black market operators not in compliance with German laws.

It remains for the regulators to not only deal with the additive rates but also fight the never-ending problem of illegal gambling. The German gambling regulator – Gemeinsamen Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL) stated that the market share of illegal gambling reached as much as 4 % of the whole German market size in 2023. According to independent research the black market issue could be A lot bigger this study estimates the proportion of players continuing to use offshore sites is as high at 48.8%.

With regulation of gambling still being a Fluid process in Germany, the latest addiction statistics are a Rude reminder of the toll human lives pay for due to insufficient measures given to protect players. The findings are likely to continue an ongoing debate regarding the efficiency of existing measures and the necessity of more fair approach that can help reduce the levels of addiction and develop efficient legal market at the same time.

The next couple of years will define the development of the German gambling policy as regulators, businesses and health professionals continue the process of defining The Fine Line of gambling regulation. The ambition is maintained to establish such a regulatory framework that would ensure the safeguard of such categories at customers as vulnerable players and dep. Addiction, and equally create free and fair competition among Licensed operators. It will be important to keep creating the balance, by working in partnerships, gathering data and information and reviewing the regulations and guidelines periodically to respond to emergent emergences and new learning.

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