What describes a public health approach to gambling in sports?

• A. Removing all gambling from sports events
• B. Focusing only on individual responsibility
• C. Treating gambling as a population health issue, focusing on prevention, education, harm-reduction, and access to support services
• D. Solely enforcing penalties for problem gamblers

Answer: (C)

A public health approach treats gambling in sports as a population health issue, focusing on prevention, education, harm-reduction, and access to support services. It looks at how the gambling environment—advertising, accessibility, affordability, and social norms—shapes risk for many people and aims to reduce harm across the whole community. This means implementing broad strategies like school and community education about risks, tools to help people gamble more responsibly, safeguards such as self-exclusion options and spending limits, and easy access to counseling and treatment. It goes beyond telling individuals to solve the problem or punishing those who gamble, aiming instead to lower the overall incidence and severity of gambling-related harm through proactive, system-wide measures.