Addictive leisure: an evaluation of the morality-economic politics of balancing casino development with local gambling policy

Legalised gambling is a regulated leisure activity and a public health problem. Permissive regulation attempts to balance the morality-economic politics of these opposing aspects through a combination of national policy oversight and regulatory devolution from national to local level. Local contexts of gambling harm and support have been important foci within public health research but have been overlooked by hospitality and tourism researchers despite the significant economic and social implications for leisure management. The development of the Victoria Gate casino in Leeds, UK, provides a unique context for examining the morality-economic politics associated with facilitating gambling development whilst simultaneously managing gambling harm. This largely qualitative study draws on interviews with eight gambling businesses, 15 gamblers and 17 support service providers with the purpose of examining the intersecting relationships between local government policy, industry social responsibility, and local support service provision. A comparative dimension was also added by drawing on extensive national datasets on gambling prevalence and problem gambling severity. Our findings bring new empirical focus to the scale of policy development and investment required to mitigate gambling development and reinforce the evidence base on the locality-support flaws of permissive regulation observed elsewhere, notably, Canada and Australia. Consequently, we contend that reliance on existing local support services to manage gambling harm whilst facilitating responsible gambling development is ineffective without a deep understanding of the local context, significant additional mitigation investment, and more effective alignment of information, referral, counselling, and advisory services to support problem and at-risk gamblers across multiple stakeholders.