The Individual and Economic Impact of Gambling: An Analysis of Spending Displacement
Session Title
Public Health: Social Costs & Economic Burden
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation
Start Date
27-5-2026 12:00 AM
Abstract
When individuals gamble, from what other spending do they draw the money to do so? If monies are displaced, then how is this displacement distributed? Does the distribution vary with the total gambling spend of the individual, and what impact does this have on the wider economy? These questions have important consequences at not only the individual level, but in debates about the role of the gambling industry, and the potential impact of strengthening gambling legislation. We implement an innovative econometric analysis of open banking data to answer these questions. Our dataset comprises financial transactional data from over 35,000 individuals in Great Britain (and an additional 11,000 in the United States), over several years. It includes multiple accounts per individual across multiple financial institutions, ensuring the most complete picture possible of each individual’s financial situation. We present results from a series of analyses to predict the within-person variation in monthly spending associated with a change in gambling spend. We see that gambling is unlike other forms of consumption, and that spending displacement to gambling is mainly in savings and investments behaviours which could have a long-term impact on individuals’ financial wellbeing. Furthermore, we look at how the distribution of spending displacement varies with the intensity of an individual’s gambling, and how overall the rates of spending displacement are impacting the wider economy.
The Individual and Economic Impact of Gambling: An Analysis of Spending Displacement
When individuals gamble, from what other spending do they draw the money to do so? If monies are displaced, then how is this displacement distributed? Does the distribution vary with the total gambling spend of the individual, and what impact does this have on the wider economy? These questions have important consequences at not only the individual level, but in debates about the role of the gambling industry, and the potential impact of strengthening gambling legislation. We implement an innovative econometric analysis of open banking data to answer these questions. Our dataset comprises financial transactional data from over 35,000 individuals in Great Britain (and an additional 11,000 in the United States), over several years. It includes multiple accounts per individual across multiple financial institutions, ensuring the most complete picture possible of each individual’s financial situation. We present results from a series of analyses to predict the within-person variation in monthly spending associated with a change in gambling spend. We see that gambling is unlike other forms of consumption, and that spending displacement to gambling is mainly in savings and investments behaviours which could have a long-term impact on individuals’ financial wellbeing. Furthermore, we look at how the distribution of spending displacement varies with the intensity of an individual’s gambling, and how overall the rates of spending displacement are impacting the wider economy.