Assigning responsibility for gambling-related harm: scrutinizing processes of direct and indirect consumer responsibilization of gamblers in Sweden

Abstract

This study is an inquiry into how actors in the Swedish gambling industry, gambling problem prevention and support structures articulate responsibility for the problems that arise from gambling. A main point made in the study is that responsibility for the gambling-related harm is actively constructed and reproduced in a hegemonic way that situates the main responsibility for the emergence and handling of gambling-related harm on the individual gambler and that relies heavily on the individual’s capacity to control and adjust his/her consumption to prevent gambling related harm. Drawing on extensive ethnographical fieldwork on responsible gambling practices in the Swedish context, the author brings attention to the often-unproblematized view of contemporary responsible gambling measures, and the need to develop a self-reflexive critical analysis of the ways in which responsibility is divided and assigned in this politicized market and wider policy field. As a conceptual contribution, an analytical distinction is suggested between measures of direct responsibilization (teaching and training gamblers to be responsible) and measures of indirect responsibilization (teaching and training intermediaries in the market, such as gambling agents and support association staff, to relinquish responsibility on behalf of the gambling consumer). The results indicate that such a distinction is fruitful for a nuanced understanding of contemporary responsibility policies and practices.

Keywords:

• Responsibilization
• responsible gambling
• responsibility
• Sweden
• consumer responsibilization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Interviews

The interviews cited in this paper were conducted in 2008 and are listed below in chronological order with the informant’s title at the time of the interview.

Project manager for ‘Project P’ (now PlayScan), Svenska Spel. Interview 2008-03-14.

Group interview with three treatment therapists of the Project Gambling at the Stockholm Addiction Treatment Centre. Interview 2008-06-10.

Gambling addiction therapist and SBRF chair for Stockholm branch. Interview 2008-08-28.

SBRF national association treasurer with active involvement at Gothenburg branch. Telephone interview 2008-09-04.

SBRF national association chair. Telephone interview 2008-10-27.

Participant observations

The participant observations drawn on in this paper were conducted in 2008 and are listed below in chronological order.

1. Svenska Spel retail agent training program (‘Spelskolan’), Svenska Spel, Sundbyberg. 2-day interactive course in gaming sales for gaming agents and Svenska Spel employees: 2008-11-10 (full day), 2008-11-11 (half day) and 2008-11-26 (half day).

2. Accompanying district manager, Svenska Spel, to retail gaming agents in Stockholm, 2008-12-08 (9:30 AM-2 PM).

3. Accompanying another district manager, Svenska Spel, to retail gaming agents in Stockholm, 2008-12-15 (10 AM-1 PM).