As gambling grows more popular and accessible across the U.S., the incidence of problem gambling is increasing. More than 2.5 million adults in the United States are estimated to have a severe gambling problem in any given year, which can negatively impact their lives, families, and careers (NCPG, 2025).
Public health organizations have been highly successful with campaigns that encourage limit setting and utilizing support services for problem gambling. However, the reality is that many people who can and should be receiving help for their gambling are not seeking it out.
In order to encourage more people to seek help for problem gambling, we knew we needed to go beyond surface-level self-reporting to understand their true barriers.
Our Approach
Working with our partner Argus, Market Street Research designed an approach to identify true behavioral determinants. We utilized a combination of qualitative and quantitative research strategies to conduct a Barrier Analysis, which compared the attitudes and beliefs of those who showed signs of problem gambling and sought professional help from those who also showed signs of problem gambling but did not seek professional help.
This allowed us to isolate the factors most strongly correlated with seeking professional help.
Key Findings
- Lack of awareness of the signs of problem gambling is not the barrier. Public health campaigns have been highly successful at creating awareness of signs of problem gambling, and we found that those who did not seek help for their gambling behaviors were actually more likely to recognize the signs of problem gambling than those who sought help. This demonstrated that awareness was not the primary barrier to seeking help at this point.
- Strategies will need to address denial. Non-help seekers exhibited cognitive dissonance: despite recognizing the signs of problem gambling and recognizing they had experienced multiple of those signs, most non-help seekers were not concerned about their gambling. Given this, strategies to encourage help-seeking will have to help people revise their image of their relationship to gambling, including helping them understand what they have to lose.
- Family and friends may play a key role. Those who sought help for problem gambling were more likely to have loved ones who had expressed concern about their gambling. In fact, friends and family may have an important role in addressing cognitive dissonance, including by raising awareness of the relationships a non-help seeker could damage or lose due to problem gambling. Encouraging gamblers to reflect on what they have to lose, and encouraging loved-ones to intervene, may have a positive impact on help-seeking behavior.
Impact
With Barrier Analysis, we were able to discover that creating awareness of the signs of problem gambling, while useful, is not enough to inspire individuals who self-rationalize their behavior to seek help. Instead, we recognized that efforts that encourage gamblers to reflect on their relationship to gambling and how it impacts those around them or that encourage loved-ones to intervene are actually a more impactful way to inspire change in those who are struggling but have yet to seek help.
Barrier Analysis systematically explores the behavioral determinants that drive or block change. It gives organizations a clear roadmap for designing interventions that actually shift behavior—taking the guesswork out of behavior change.
To learn more about Barrier Analysis and how it can benefit your work, contact us for a consultation today.