Learning from tobacco control to tackle gambling industry harms

When an industry acts to maintain profits and ensure its survival despite its harms, serious and avoidable public health crises unfold.1234 Tobacco smoking is the primary example of this: an ongoing industrial epidemic fuelled by tobacco companies’ efforts to promote smoking, cast doubt on evidence of harms, and prevent, delay, and weaken policies that threaten its commercial interests.4 The progress made in reducing smoking reflects not only widespread acceptance of the harms but also a comprehensive understanding of the tobacco industry’s efforts to undermine tobacco control.5 These practices include strategies to influence science, policy making, and public norms and to establish commercial entities as legitimate health policy partners.67

There is extensive evidence that other health harming industries—–such as alcohol, fossil fuels, ultraprocessed food, chemicals and manufacturing, extractive, pharmaceutical and medical products, and gambling—use similar practices.16789101112 Yet knowledge about the tobacco industry’s practices has not consistently informed approaches to regulating other sectors, including gambling. Whereas the tobacco industry is largely excluded from policy making and its marketing practices highly restricted,13 the gambling industry is still viewed as a legitimate partner in health policy making.7914 This is despite gambling being known to lead to serious harms such as mental illness, financial distress, family breakdown, child neglect, domestic violence, and suicide.1516 Furthermore, children, young people, and those experiencing poverty, discrimination, or other disadvantage may be at greater risk of harm, while industry profits from the harm produced.1516 Gambling damages lives, families, and communities; burdens public services; and drives crime, …