If I Had A Hammer

The responsible gambling landscape is full of people with hammers that are in search of nails. It's time to add more tools to the toolbox.

Look at any RG campaign of the past few years and the only noticeable difference from older campaigns is that they cost more money. But we’re supposed to believe they will deliver different results. It’s time for a new approach—an approach that requires breaking through the bubble the industry has encased itself in.

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I estimate I’ve spent a minimum of 20,000 hours sitting at poker tables in casinos. I’m a very social poker player and will banter with the rest of the table and chat with the dealers. That means I’ve gotten to know many professional and recreational gamblers and the people who spend their days pitching them cards.

When people in my “normal” life ask about my job, quite a few suddenly perk up and become very interested — it turns out there are a lot of recreational bettors in the wild — and start asking questions and opening up about their gambling habits. Most conversations are vanilla, but now and then, there are some surprises.   

And then there are my work conversations, where I’m constantly immersed in all things gambling. From C-suite executives to Sports Betting Twitter, I get bombarded with viewpoints all day, every day. 

These different experiences have shaped my opinions on gambling, and in particular, responsible gambling and problem gambling. My views would be very different if I was only a poker player, or only discussed gambling with family and friends, or only talked about it with my work circles.

Everything Is a Nail

The saying, when you only have a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail, is very on point for the current discussion around responsible and problem gambling.

As Dave Yeager and Dr. Nathan Smith wrote:

“Creating an RG program does not necessarily reduce gambling-related harm. Nor does spending money, writing white papers, holding meetings, collecting positive anecdotes, or any of a dozen other actions that are commonly substituted for actual evidence of efficacy in our field... Every responsible gambling program running in a state should be able to provide a clear and simple answer to the four questions noted above: What is the harm to be prevented? Who is the harm affecting? How does the intervention reduce the harm? How will we know if the harm is being reduced?”

When your only perspective comes from inside a particular bubble, your view will be very limited. As Yeager and Jones put it, “The number of interventions currently running in the US with no clear idea of who they are supposed to be helping and how are legion.”

That reminds me of another saying I constantly use, “You can’t measure what you don’t track.”

The result is far too many gatekeepers who believe that what resonates inside their bubble is the answer; no other proof is needed. This amounts to a peer-review stamp of approval. They must be on the right path if their circle retweets and likes their social media posts and shares their articles/papers/conference appearances.

They are holding their hammers and looking for nails. And to be fair, there is no shortage of nails. We live in a country of 350 million people, so every week, there is some new RG mishap or problem gambling story to tell.

Still, I would caution that laying your head down on your pillow with a clear conscience will not solve anything. Finding the flaws in most of the solutions and ideas being trumpeted takes about five minutes of critical thought.

Again, hammering the nails in is an important job, but it’s not the only job. The RG-PG space needs to start adding tools to its toolbox.