Gambling is a form of risk-taking in which people stake something of value on a random event for the potential to win a prize. It can take many forms, including betting on a football team to win a game, buying a scratchcard, or playing casino games. While most people gamble for fun, a small number of people develop problems with gambling that can have devastating personal, family and financial consequences.

There are many different types of gambling, and some may be more addictive than others. Regardless of the type of gambling, the brain responds to it in similar ways, producing dopamine, which is the feel-good neurotransmitter that makes us excited when we win. While most people experience this excitement when they win, some people become addicted to gambling and find it difficult to stop.

The effects of gambling can be structuralized in a conceptual model where impacts are divided into negative and positive; costs and benefits. These classes are categorized into three levels: personal, interpersonal and community/societal. Individual impacts induce effects on a personal level to gamblers themselves, interpersonal impacts influence the gambler’s relationships with others and societal impacts include externalities that are paid or incurred by non-gamblers.

Despite the fact that gamblers can generate substantial income from gambling, it is important to understand that gambling also creates significant social and economic costs. These can be classified into financial, labor and health and well-being costs. Among these, financial and labor costs are primarily related to the gambling industry, while health and well-being concerns are more specific to gamblers and their significant others. In addition, these costs can be long-term and affect generations.

The main problem with measuring gambling impacts is that the majority of them are non-monetary. This means that they are often ignored in calculations. Most studies have tended to focus on the monetary costs and benefits of gambling, as these are easy to measure. This omits the more serious social impacts that can result from gambling and can be hard to quantify.

Some of the most serious costs of gambling are related to health and well-being, particularly for individuals with gambling disorders. These can be difficult to measure, but one potential approach is to use disability weights (DW), which are calculated using a person’s health-related quality of life (HRQL) as the denominator. DWs can help to discover intangible, social costs of gambling and also provide a more comprehensive picture of its impact on society. This method can be applied to gambling research and policy development. Furthermore, it can be used to determine whether the positive impact of gambling is worth the associated costs. This is crucial to the overall effectiveness of policy interventions that aim to reduce gambling harms.