The Journal of Gambling Business and Economics

There is a long-standing gap in the market for a journal that provides an outlet for academics and practitioners who have an interest in the economic and business aspects of the rapidly growing international gambling market. This journal is designed to fill this gap.

The aim of the journal is to be relevant to a wide range of parties, from academics to policy-makers to those involved in the business and commercial side of betting and gaming.

The journal will publish articles on a wide variety of issues of relevance to the broad subject area, and of topics of current debate, and authors will be allowed considerable freedom, subject to the maintenance of professional standards, in how they treat their areas of enquiry.

While technical and specialist theoretical papers are encouraged, papers which contribute to public discussion and which are applicable to the practical concerns of decision-makers are especially welcome.

Papers which provide an accessible survey of a field of relevant debate are also actively encouraged.

This is an international journal, a perspective which is well reflected in the authorship of the papers included in this first issue.

Welcome to the ‘Journal of Gambling Business and Economics’!

Welcome to this special edition of the Journal of Gambling Business and Economics. This special issue has been published on an open access basis.

The specific aims of the overall research programme published in this special issue are to describe and understand patterns of gaming machine play in various locations; to explain the impact on player behaviour of various factors; and to identify where there is robust evidence that consumers may be experiencing problems.

As a part of this research programme, we commissioned a number of evidence reviews and contextual papers by eminent academics in gambling studies with the purpose of providing a concise and accessible understanding about some of the key questions and issues that arise in the public discourse around commercial gambling generally, and gaming machine behaviour particularly.

As such, we hope that the five papers that follow will be helpful to all those who have an interest in promoting responsible gambling behaviour and minimising gambling-related harm in Great Britain.