Gambling Behaviour Ladder
This activity considers the nuance in risk associated with gambling. It gives the opportunity to discuss the differences in behaviours between different forms of gambling and illustrates how gambling behaviour should be considered on a continuum, not simply placed into categories.
Time:
10-15min
Materials to print:
Gambling Behaviour Ladder cards
Method
- Provide the group with a set of Gambling Behaviour Ladder cards.
- Ask the group to put the cards in order from what they consider least risky to what they consider the most risky gambling behaviour. Emphasise that there is no right or wrong answer.
- Go through the order they have chosen, starting from the least problematic, asking participants to justify their answers. Discuss what factors they considered and why they think some behaviours introduce more risk than others.
- Encourage discussion about the motivations behind why people gamble, the frequency, the amount spent. Discuss at what point each of these behaviours would become problematic if they do not think the character already had a problem. Mention that although not all of these examples are examples of harmful gambling, they are all realistic and illustrate how normalised gambling is in our culture.
Alternative options:
If it’s a big group, you could divide it into teams and use multiple sets of cards. You could also give 1 card to each person and then ask the group to stand up forming a line to visualise where they would place each example.
Possible Follow-Up Activity:
- Place each card around the room.
- In pairs or small groups, as the participants to write a relevant harm reduction tip on a post-it note and stick it to the card it relates to.
- Ask the group to share and discuss the tips they came up with and suggest any tips they may not have considered.