This work was funded by Wellcome Trust through a Humanities and Social Sciences Fellowship to Heather Wardle (grant number: 200306). The final section of our paper considers the various forms of political and commercial influence that infiltrate and shape the framing of gambling in Britain. As such, we make the point that framing is a key component of the commercial determinants of harm in gambling.
We go on to describe the commercial landscape of gambling that has been produced by this framework as one which produces harm. We argue that this framing is the product of a particular political-economic model and that it is embedded in legislation and regulatory practice. We take the example of Britain as a case study in which, despite recent repeated calls for gambling to be regarded as a public health issue, it continues to be framed primarily in terms of economic activity and consumerism. Whoever frames the debate has power over the ways that we can and cannot think about gambling, as well as what we can do about it. This article argues that the framing of gambling is crucial for how it is dealt with at every level from legislative, regulatory and commercial practice to the terms of media and civic debate.
