Expert: Sharp Rise in Demand for Gambling Addiction Help During Football World Cup

Diagnosis and Prevalence of Gambling Addiction

According to the health psychologist, four to five times as many men as women come to the Anton Proksch Institute. Many of the patients are young, around 25 to 28 years old. In Austria, around 300,000 people are addicted to gambling. Pathological gambling addiction is diagnosed when the dependency persists for at least twelve months – Scheibenbogen formulates: "It must persist for at least twelve months."

The financial consequences are severe: At the Anton Proksch Institute's outpatient clinic, an average gambling addict has debts of 35,000 to 50,000 euros, with some owing as much as 300,000 euros. "Many have ruined their existence to such an extent that they have suicidal thoughts or actually commit suicide due to the massive debt," Scheibenbogen warns.

Financial and Personal Consequences

A key diagnostic threshold lies in whether someone gambles because they want to win money and actually need it. "Am I betting because I want to win money and also need it? Then it becomes critical," the expert explains. Combination bets can pay out a hundred or thousand times the stake – "that is often a hundred or thousand times the stake" – thereby reinforcing the urge to keep playing.

In pathological gambling addiction, loss of control, tolerance development, and so-called "chasing" are at the forefront – that is, chasing losses with ever higher risk. These factors have intensified for many patients during the World Cup.

Legal Situation and Demands

Scheibenbogen considers advertising for betting particularly problematic, as it lowers the inhibition threshold – especially among young people. "From studies we know that this advertising has a very critical effect on children. For children, the threshold to eventually start is significantly lower," he said. In his view, a fundamental countermeasure would be a comprehensive blocking network: anyone blocked with one provider should be blocked with all others as well – and across all types of gambling.

In Austria, sports betting is legally not classified as gambling. Scheibenbogen speaks in this context of a "huge discrepancy between the jurisdiction and the scientific evidence." Regarding the new gambling law, which opens up the domestic online gambling market to more providers, Scheibenbogen did not wish to comment: "We stay out of politics as much as possible." In addition, online gambling is often governed by the law of the country where the server is located – "control is often lacking here."

Support Services in Vienna and Austria

The institute has historically already dealt with similar phenomena. "We saw this strongly during the refugee wave in 2015: Many people did receive money to live on from the state, but far too little to work their way up – they also had no work permit. So they went betting," Scheibenbogen recalls. Those who hold other values higher in life, by contrast, are almost immune to gambling addiction: "If you hold other values higher in life, you are almost immune to it."

For patients with suicidality, additional mental illnesses, or lacking social support, inpatient therapy is provided. In addition, the Federal Ministry of Health's suicide prevention portal at www.suizid-praevention.gv.at provides contact details for support services in Austria. The outpatient clinic of the Anton Proksch Institute at Wiedner Hauptstraße 150, 1050 Vienna, is open Monday to Thursday from 8:30 to 11:00 a.m. and additionally on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.