The Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming invites you to another of their public lectures by Dr Zsuzsa Kaló (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary) who will be able to answer some questions on why it is important to discuss gender differences in relation to addictions; why there should be more focus on women and how gambling habits of women are different to those of men.

Gambling research has undergone significant development in the past decades; however, some relevant areas have lagged behind. One of them is the revealing of women’s problem gambling behaviour. More specifically, an understanding of what specific characteristics female gamblers have, what specific harms and risks they are exposed to, and what specific help they would need in order to reduce those harms and achieve successful treatment.

According to the British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BGPS) (Wardle et al., 2011), the proportion of female gamblers increased from 68% in 1999 to 71% by 2010, especially among older women. However, this phenomenon is less visible in the foreground, it has become a systematically neglected area of research. Moreover, women are a more hidden population than men, so we know little about the specifics and special dangers of female gambling. Furthermore, research to date has not, or only very rarely, made a meaningful effort to explore these specific factors. This is partly explained by the methodological difficulty that traditionally developed research methods cannot be applied successfully in all cases in this more hidden population compared to men. In the case of women, the higher degree of stigmatization associated with gambling inevitably leads to more covert behaviour, which not only complicates research but also increases the risk of further harm and the application of therapeutic and harm reduction interventions.