The 13th European Conference on Gambling Studies and Policy Issues was held in Oslo, September 6-9, 2022. This conference was planned for 2020, but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference was organized by EASG – the European Association for the Study of Gambling.
About 300 people attended. Compared to previous EASG conferences, it seemed that there were fewer participants from Asia and more people from Eastern Europe.
I presented a study on gambling and crime, with the title “Criminogenic problem gambling: Types of crimes and characteristics of perpetrators”. The study is about excessive gambling causing crime, and is based on verdicts delivered by Swedish courts. The main results have been published in the article:
– Binde, P., Cisneros Örnberg, J., & Forsström, D. (2021). Criminogenic problem gambling: A study of verdicts by Swedish courts. International Gambling Studies, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14459795.2021.2002383 (open access)
My general impression of the EASG conference in Oslo was that the gambling industry was given more room than before to express their opinions and discuss issues of their interest, especially in the plenary sessions. Besides the industry representatives, at the plenary sessions, there were gambling regulators and researchers using data from gambling companies. Almost all presentations of new research took place at the parallel sessions (up to six tracks, 15 minutes speaking time for the presenters).
For me, as a researcher, this was a bit disappointing. Previous EASG conferences have been more balanced between researchers, regulators and the gambling industry. I would have preferred that many of the plenary sessions had been about high-quality, high-impact research on current issues in gambling studies.
Nevertheless, it was nice to meet many people that I have come to know during my 20 years as a gambling researcher.
