Online Program

Panel Discussion

The purpose of this session is to cultivate discussion and awareness of problem gambling as a public health issue among researchers, policy makers, educators, and public health practitioners. A secondary purpose of this session is to share promising methods of assessing the social and health impacts of gambling, including measuring problem gambling prevalence and associated co-morbidities (e.g., depression, anxiety, alcohol and nicotine dependence). By highlighting a successful multi-sector collaboration, the session will underscore the importance of collaboration between academic researchers, policymakers, regulators, public health practitioners, and community stakeholders in both assessing and addressing public health problems.

Session Objectives: 1. Define problem gambling as a public health issue. 2. Describe a research approach for measuring the prevalence of problem gambling, assessing the social and health impacts of gambling, and evaluating the effectiveness of problem gambling services. 3. Analyze the prevalence of problem gambling in Massachusetts and comorbidities common among problem gamblers (e.g., depression, anxiety, alcohol and nicotine dependence). 4. Identify the importance of multi-sector collaboration in assessing population-level public health impacts.