By Cristina-Maria Badea and Raluca-Ștefania Badea

In the context of evolving new technologies around the world, access to online recreation and online freedom fails to be approached from the perspective of public health. Research in the domain of problem or pathological gambling shows that few countries have recently started to address the medical and social challenges of the issue, with regard to related-criminality and population health. Romania is not one of those countries, although reality shows an increase in gambling venues and online gambling opportunities which, as studies show, can only mean an increase in the number of problem or pathological gamblers, and possibly an increase in gambling-related crimes. With the present study we aim to point out both the urgent need for a multidisciplinary network to deal with the issues of gambling disorder and its relationship with criminality, and the possible benefits of trying to prevent the harm brought by criminality to society by addressing society’s responsibility to the people in terms of ensuring public health. It is the authors’ opinions that challenges raised by developing technologies, especially by online mobility and gambling market, together with online identity volatility, will bring even deeper layers of social issues if prevention of problem or pathological gambling is not undertaken as an important priority.

FIAT IUSTITIA, 2020, vol. 14, issue 1, 33-42