ER visits for gambling disorders doubled after expanded online gambling market

BugsJustFindMe

> "Emergency room visits for gambling disorders" Huh? > "More than 70 per cent of gambling disorder emergency department visits involved another mental health condition or heavy substance use and almost one-third of the visits led to hospital admission." Ok, so I assume they mean that these emergency visits were for things like drug overdoses and psychotic episodes in people led to by their gambling disorders, not for the gambling disorders themselves. What a strange way of writing this up. A gambling disorder is a chronic problem, not an acute one. There's a difference between "emergency visit for X" where you treat X and "emergency visit (for Y) because of X" where you treat Y proximal to X, and people could learn to be more discerning in their use and interpretation of language.

ntonozzi

Privately funded health care solves this.

dpflan

Our incredible brains are easily high-jacked. Another concerning trend in global/societal mental health that stresses different parts of it (e.g. increased ER visits). If the entirety of humanity is a connected mind let's say, and more and more parts of it are being damaged by companies that capitalize on "flaws" in the human brain -- which means our shared mentality keeps weakening and can be exploited more and more. It's just so much easier now because there is a machine in your pocket full of endless ways to high-jack your mind and attention. We live in really crazy/fascinating times, accelerating human problems at "internet scale".

geooff_

> In 2024, Ontarians wagered $82.7 billion CAD on these sites through 2.6 million player accounts. Truly astounding numbers. Without a doubt, online gambling is the most preventable public health crisis of our generation. None of this had any business getting legalized.

alex1138

I'm getting sick of the ads. It's in every NHL commercial break, Rogan (though I don't know about it now) has them as sponsors Guys, it's predatory. Stop

tt24

Let me guess - because some people are unable to consume this form of entertainment responsibly, we have to make it illegal for everyone? Makes sense. While we’re at it let’s kick the war on drugs back into high gear, reinstate prohibition, and make other higher risk behavior illegal.

rdm_blackhole

Unfortunately I fail to empathise with gamblers not because I think they deserve to be afflicted by this disease but simply because I have never found gambling appealing as an activity. I bought a few lottery tickets when the prize reaches astronomical proportions but it was always a case of going along and doing it with family/friends just for fun. I guess I could understand the appeal if the chances to actually win something were pretty good but it’s a well known fact that the house always wins in the end.

nullc

I have never felt anything about gambling. Most boring thing ever. I don't feel anything about investment, and wrote automation to track mine because it's all so boring. I wouldn't tempt fate to try to expose myself more, but it doesn't seem like I contain whatever is required to form these addictions. Has it been studied if some people are just much more vulnerable than others, and are there predictive factors?

apitman

A few months ago I read an article that compared vibe coding to gambling[0] and I've found it a useful model. [0]: maybe this one: https://www.fast.ai/posts/2026-01-28-dark-flow/

johnnyApplePRNG

Out of seemingly nowhere a few years ago, the canadian local landscape changed overnight. I feel like I am walking around las vegas half the time. Virtually every corner store has turned into those english sports betting pubs or whatever they have all over England. It's disgusting.

r3trohack3r

> Emergency room visits for gambling disorders Are Canadian ERs different than ERs in the U.S.? Why would one go to an emergency room, seek emergency treatment, for a gambling disorder?

JumpCrisscross

How does someone at the ER for gambling addiction present?

whatever1

All gambling should be state owned. It is a strict societal loss anyway, we can at least soften the overall blow. Losses can be redistributed and cover for the externalities of gambling. And we will be able to control the knob on how addictive we make them. For profit companies have the target to maximize their profit, so of course they will ramp up any method that can bring in more revenue.

jacobgold

Vegas was such a great solution to gambling for Americans. We had it contained to a specific place, making it easy to access but also easy to avoid. Cryptocurrency, which turned into just another form of gambling, seems to have been the corrupting influence that allowed it to spread into people's homes. I hope we can reverse it somehow.

gleezard

Since this was recently legalized and nothing that we say on HN or in general will actually lead to changing it back (we were never asked to legalize it in the first place), I’m inclined to lean into this and say: good, fuck ‘em!

freediddy

Why did it result in an emergency room visit? Did they try to self-harm or something because of losses?

quickthrowman

I’m confused, are these suicide attempts due to gambling addiction or is it mental health ER patients looking to enter a gambling addiction treatment program? I’m having a hard time thinking of any other reason that a gambling addiction would cause someone to visit the ER.

geodel

Hmm, I was expecting it would halve, once gamblers get their fill.

sixsevenrot

So there is more awareness of the problem, gambling ads are required to publish a helpline number. Most of the gamers have other psychological disorders. Thus it's awareness + more consistent asking for help + regular naming of gambling among other problems. What is the number of non-gamblers that started gambling and ended up in ER and would not have eneded up in ER if gambling wasn't available?

deinonychus

good news for cancer and CVD at this rate, in 40 years 100% of ER visits will be due to gambling disorders. really a triumph in public health