Historically, the gaming industry, particularly in the area of casino gaming has been dominated by men since the mid-1950s. During that time, women were known to only be allocated to ‘supporting roles of entertainment’, which was primarily prostitution. Across countries where gaming is legalized, top positions at gambling organizations were held by men and even most local casino operators were men. However, the world of gambling began to take a different turn in the past two decades. Gradually, amongst male and female gamers, we began to see the role of women become more predominant in the world of gaming, from becoming pro-gamblers to sharing top executive positions at gaming organization with men and even becoming casino operators as well. Sometimes, the Women’s poker World Managing Editor noted that “women in the gaming industry were taking their place in the world of casino gaming and would soon inch closer to being closer to their male counterparts soon enough”. Apparently, we see how that has become so evident in the 21st century.
Statistics of women in gambling across the world today
Nations across the world began to record an increase in the percentage of women gambling. In recent years, the world gambling statistics rose to about 26% of the entire world population with countries like the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Thailand, and Macau emerging as top gaming centers since the start of the millennia. Research further showed that one-third of the entire percentage are women. Reports across the world also noted that the percentage had tripled since 2015 and the rate at which online gambling increased, compared to that of local operators played a huge role in this increase. Since this recent development, it’s been somewhat of a smooth sail in the gaming industry, particularly for women. The early days of strong discrimination and relegation of women to the background in the world of gaming are long gone and equality of both genders is gradually taking its root.
However, this ‘breakthrough’ for women did come with an adverse effect. Just as the number of female gamblers finding their place in the gambling world increased, the percentage of female gambling addicts increased as well. In the last five years, the statistics of gambling addicts rose by 50% across the world and the female gender measured as half of the population of people considered as ‘problem gamblers’. In Sweden, the country recently recorded over 45,000 persons who are addicted to gambling, and numbers showed that 64% are female. Consequently, the need to create a gambling addiction treatment center for women arose and the good news is that the first of its kind open in 2021.
World’s gambling addiction treatment center for women to open in 2021
The first gambling addiction treatment center in the world for women has been announced to open in the Midland come 2021. Although the specific date and month for its opening is yet to be announced, the latest development came as a result of the recent research that indicated that the number of women gambling in the UK is at its peak. A gambling therapy charity, Gordon Moody Association, has revealed that addicted female gamblers across the world needed more support and treatment moving forward. In 2019, platforms like GambleAware, GamCare, and Gambling Therapy conveyed 30% of help desk calls were from females, with 41% seeking help from themselves and 59% asking for other women.
The CEO of Gordon Moody Association, Matthew Hickey also reported that the association had a record of more than 100,000 women using the organization’s gambling therapy website. The organization as a body further stated that it believed that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic played a huge role in this menace that has hit the female population of the world, specifically in the UK, noting that it needed to be handled with more proficiency and availability of resources.
Consequently, the facilitator of the new treatment center pointed that asides from her previous retreat and counselling, there would be a capacity where 24 women will be treated directly with expert therapists on an annual basis, ensuring that the environment will be a safe one for the women, while they clamor for more international aid for a larger capacity.
Final Verdict
People across the world have positively reacted to this development to come in next years, with expectations high as to how this is a big step to aiding more addicted female gamblers across the world speak up about their problem and getting the help they need. This is definitely promising to be a steady but huge achievement for the world in 2021.
