Building Your Coalition’s Capacity to Address Problem Gambling

Community coalitions are natural leaders in addressing local challenges. Because coalitions are rooted in the communities they serve, they understand local needs, populations, and patterns of risk far better than any outside organization. This knowledge, paired with strong partnerships and local data, enables coalitions to respond to problem gambling effectively. Building your coalition’s capacity starts with bringing the right partners to the table, taking time to understand how problem gambling shows up in your community, and implementing evidence-informed strategies.

Engaging Partners

Building a strong coalition requires engaging key partners. Keeping partners involved over time requires using their strengths in your coalition work and meeting their expectations for the coalition. When you bring partners together, you expand your reach and increase your influence, credibility, and impact. Working with a variety of professionals helps mobilize the entire population that your coalition serves. 

Working with partners can:  

When engaging partners, it’s important to understand the issue you’re asking them to address. Knowing the prevalence of gambling disorder in your service area and state, in addition to the trajectory of the problem, can help you speak confidently about the value of prevention and why their involvement matters. 

As you begin thinking about who should be involved, consider the following questions:  

  • Who are the current members? 

  • What skills, knowledge, relationships, and resources do your current members bring?  

  • Who is missing and which sectors are not represented in the coalition?  

    • Reaching out to additional partners can bring a variety of perspectives and help increase your coalition’s reach.   

Make your work more powerful  

Increase your visibility

Expand your reach

Community groups or sectors to consider: 

Youth

Youth-Serving Orgs

Parents

Religious or Fraternal Organizations

Business

Civic or volunteer groups

Media

Healthcare Professional or Organizations

School

Law Enforcement

State, Local, and Tribal Government Organizations

Local Organizations Involved in Reducing Substance Use

Community Assessment

A community assessment can help you gather information on your community’s needs, priorities, and strengths related to problem gambling. This process provides insights into who is affected, how gambling behaviors show up in daily life, and where gaps exist in support or prevention. Determining the risk of problem gambling requires both qualitative and quantitative data dedicated specifically to gambling, but federal resources for this type of data are currently limited. Assessments typically take a few months to complete but can take up to a year or more depending on the amount and complexity of data collected, the size of your community, and the data collection methods used. 

As part of a community assessment, you could survey or interview community members, hold public listening sessions, or host focus groups. You may want to hear from different groups, such as community members, social workers, healthcare providers, government officials, and local businesses. Coalitions may also consider: 

  • Surveys that include gambling-related questions in educational settings across the service area and in other relevant environments; 

  • Focus groups with adults, young residents, and sector representatives;  

  • Key informant interviews with leaders across sectors; 

  • Observational counts of gambling establishments 

Coalitions should strive for an assessment that collects different types of data that complement one another. For example, a survey question could be adapted for use in qualitative settings like a focus group. When federal or state-level data become available, remember to integrate it into your findings to build a more complete picture of the local landscape. 

To begin planning your community assessment, consider what your coalition wants to accomplish, who will be involved, and what resources you will need for each step to help the assessment itself go more smoothly.

Some guiding questions as you begin your community assessment for problem gambling: 

  • What does your coalition want to gain from the community assessment? 

  • How will your coalition collect and analyze data? 

  • Who will be interested in learning about your community assessment findings? 

  • Who will be involved in the community assessment process, including coalition members and community members? Does the team include members from all parts of the community? Who else needs to be included? 

  • Which members of your coalition have skills and experience that could be helpful to the assessment process?  

    • Data collection and analysis experience are helpful, as are less obvious skills or assets like community relationships, experience organizing similar activities, and familiarity with the area being assessed. 

  • What does your coalition already have and what is still needed to conduct the community assessment? 

Evidence-Informed Interventions 

Effective prevention happens when coalitions combine strong partnerships with local data and evidence-informed practices. Because coalition members understand their own service area best, they can identify how problem gambling shows up in the community and select strategies that align with local needs and capacity. Partners can contribute to this work in myriad ways, such as supporting implementation, helping shape messaging, improving community access, and expanding your coalition’s reach. 

A strong indicator of coalition success is cross-sector collaboration. By bringing together partners from multiple sectors, such as public health, schools, healthcare, faith communities, law enforcement, and more, they combine resources and coordinate effective strategies. As essential components of the public health system, coalitions are uniquely positioned to prevent problem gambling in their communities. 

Prevention efforts at the community level consist of changing or influencing community conditions, standards, institutions, structures, systems, and policies that shape behavior. Coalitions can support this work through educational campaigns, expanded access to mental health resources, and responsible gaming initiatives. These evidence-informed interventions not only help prevent problem gambling but also work to reduce the harms experienced by individuals and communities affected by it. 

Examples of recommended strategies include: 

  • Sustainable funding 

  • Merchant education 

  • Community awareness efforts 

  • Expanded protections for consumers 

  • Advertising regulations 

  • Zoning restrictions 

  • Developing a responsible gambling host association 

  • Youth education 

The Seven Strategies for Community Change 

The Seven Strategies for Community Change offer a practical framework for preventing problem gambling by helping communities address the local conditions that contribute to harmful behaviors. These strategies span both individual and environmental approaches and using them together helps contribute towards needed change in our communities.

Individual Strategies

Environmental Strategies

Provide Information 

Sharing educational presentations, workshops, data, seminars, and other communications (e.g., public announcements, brochure dissemination, billboards, community meetings, forums, web-based communication) to increase understanding of the problem, its root causes, local conditions, and potential solutions.  

Key questions when planning: 

  • Who needs the information?  

  • What information will help address the specific local condition? 

Enhance Skills

Offering workshops, trainings, webinars, technical assistance, and other learning opportunities to increase the skills of coalition members, partners, staff, and community stakeholders. Building upon these skills supports efforts to change identified local conditions and achieve population-level outcomes. 

Provide Support

Creating opportunities for people to apply new knowledge and skills, while establishing protective factors and reducing risk factors. This might include follow-up support, peer networks, or other resources that reinforce healthy decision-making and collective action. 

    • Online counseling 

    • Peer-support chats 

    • Virtual communities that serve as protection against excessive use 

    • Stimulus control: Families should take steps to reduce the cues that trigger a desire to gamble, such as avoiding certain places, people, or app-related prompts  

    • Financial regulation: Implementing strategies to control youth expenditures, such as limiting access to cash or setting spending limits, can be a part of a comprehensive plan for youth   

Enhance Access/Reducing Barriers 

Improving systems and processes so people can more easily engage in behaviors that reduce risk. This may involve new technologies, cultural or language considerations, youth-friendly approaches, safety enhancements, or other changes that remove barriers.  

Change Consequences (Incentives/Disincentives)  

Shaping behavior by adjusting the consequences of actions, such as offering recognition or rewards for positive behavior, or implementing fines, fees, or penalties for harmful behaviors. 

    • Pricing and taxation

Physical Design

Modifying the physical environment to reduce risk and improve community conditions. Examples include signage, lighting, outlet density changes, or the installation of new technologies in automobiles.  

    • Policymakers could consider limiting chance-based items and applying controls commonly used in gambling settings to curb youth spending and prevent engagement 

    • ATM removal:Removing ATMs near gambling venues reduces convenient access to cash and can reduce spending, especially among high-risk gamblers 

    • Lighting control: Adjusting the level and type of lighting in gambling areas can influence behavior. Poor or specific lighting can be used to promote gambling, while better-designed lighting could potentially reduce it 

    • Clock visibility: Making clocks clearly visible within gambling areas can help players be more aware of time spent gambling, which may help reduce session length and expenditure 

    • Isolation and visibility: Designing gambling spaces to limit the "visibility" or isolation of gambling areas can impact behavior 

    • Physical barriers: While less detailed in the provided results, a more general strategy would be to create physical barriers or remove easily accessible machines from public areas 

    • Restricting gambling venues and licenses 

    • Limiting gambling venue hours of operation

    • Limiting accessibility to gambling venues

Modify/Change Policies

Developing or revising formal policies at any level (state, county, municipal, organizational, or business). Policies may include laws, procedures, law enforcement practices, bylaws, business policies or practices, or institutional rules that guide community behavior. 

Appendix of Evidence-Informed Practices

  1. The role of virtual communities for gambling and videogaming should be considered during prevention and treatment of gambling/videogaming problems, especially for women (52). Identification within virtual communities may considerably influence in-game spending behaviors (52). Additional input is needed from game developers and rating boards (50). Online videogaming and gambling providers could take proactive roles in identifying and excluding gambling youth. Similar approaches may be applicable to identifying, intervening, and limiting at-risk gambling/videogaming (31). Providers could also include links to online counseling, peer-support chats, educational materials, and virtual communities that may serve as protection against excessive use (31, 52). Policymakers could consider placing limits on chance-items and use other controls that are traditionally used in gambling settings to limit youth spending and prevent youth engagement (49, 50, 53, 54).  

  2. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment for Gambling (SBIRT) 

    This index functions as a Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment for Gambling (SBIRT)-style tool to identify youth at risk for developing gambling disorder and guide early intervention.  

    • Screening: Typically conducted in school settings, such as during athletic physicals or sign-ups for youth sports, to identify early signs of gambling-related risk 

    • Brief Intervention: If a screening score indicates concerning behavior, an on-site social worker or clinician conducts an in-depth conversation with students 

    • Referral to Treatment: If further support or counseling is needed, the on-site clinician provides a referral to treatment

    Research on SBIRT for alcohol reduction suggests that implementation supports should be tailored according to professional skills, cultural context, and individual preferences (Wamsley et al., 2018). 

    The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) outlines 14 domains, such as knowledge and skills, beliefs and attitudes, resources, motivation, and behavioral regulation, that help identify implementation barriers. These issues should be considered when adapting SBIRT for problem gambling.