March is Drawback Playing Consciousness Month, an annual marketing campaign placed on by the Nationwide Council on Drawback Playing (NCPG) in Washington, DC.
March is the Nationwide Council on Drawback Playing’s annual Drawback Playing Consciousness Month. The 2026 marketing campaign is targeted on integrating playing screening into routine healthcare. (Picture: NCPG)
The NCPG says Drawback Playing Consciousness Month is a nationwide grassroots marketing campaign that seeks to extend the general public’s consciousness of playing issues and to advertise related prevention, therapy, and restoration providers.
The theme for 2026 is “Caring Communities, Stronger Futures.” The initiative emphasizes the significance of a community-driven strategy to downside playing consciousness and help.
When a group comes collectively — pals, households, educators, healthcare suppliers, native companions, and policymakers — silence is changed with help, and isolation is changed with connection,” the marketing campaign web site states.
The NCPG is asking on all gaming stakeholders, from state gaming regulatory our bodies to gaming operators, to advertise Drawback Playing Consciousness Month. The nation’s solely nationwide nonprofit devoted to mitigating gambling-related harms has varied supplies, from press launch templates to social media pictures, that may be accessed on its web site.
Healthcare Implementation
Playing is extra accessible and widespread than ever earlier than. All however three states, Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah, have some type of authorized playing, whether or not it’s casinos, iGaming, sports activities betting, parimutuel wagering, or a lottery.
With Individuals taking part in some type of playing at report ranges, the NCPG believes it’s time that major care docs repeatedly test in with their sufferers about their playing exercise. A 2026 purpose of Drawback Playing Consciousness Month is to encourage healthcare suppliers to display sufferers for potential playing issues.
“Nearly all of Individuals acknowledge playing habit as a respectable behavioral well being difficulty,” stated Heather Maurer, the chief director of the NCPG. “The subsequent step is guaranteeing our public well being methods, insurance policies, and prevention methods mirror that understanding.”
On Tuesday, March 10, the NCPG will host Playing Dysfunction Screening Day. By a partnership with the Cambridge Well being Alliance Division on Habit, free on-line screenings shall be supplied on this website. Folks can self-assess or meet with a practitioner over the web.
“Playing dysfunction results in monetary, emotional, social, occupational, and bodily harms, but many circumstances go undetected as a result of restricted evaluation for this downside. Screening Day addresses the crucial to detect gambling-related issues as early as attainable, and the Division encourages all organizations and suppliers to take part on this annual occasion,” the Cambridge Well being Alliance Division on Habit commented.
File Losses, Drawback Playing Will increase
Gamblers within the US misplaced a report $78.7 billion final yr to business operators. The gaming income is from business (non-tribal) casinos, racinos, sports activities betting, and iGaming. The tally doesn’t embrace lottery income.
Researchers on the College of California, San Diego, Qualcomm Institute College of Drugs wrote final yr that the speedy development of authorized sports activities betting has brought about a surge in playing issues. The examine concluded that web searches for assist with playing habit elevated 23% between 2018 and 2024.
