For many years, the gambling industry in civilized countries has been an integral part of the entertainment industry. As the rise in the standard of living always leads to the release of time to spend on yourself, your hobbies, sports and other interesting things, among which there is also a place for gambling.
Despite the fact that, as in any business, the economy takes a leading place in the development of the entertainment industry, the social significance of this sphere is no less important. For example, studies of the self-perception of happiness among citizens of various countries prove the presence of a positive relationship between a high standard of living, the possibility to legally gamble and the satisfaction that citizens can safely spend their own money on what they like, and easily choose their favourite type of recreation.
According to the recent World Happiness Report, countries with a high level of happiness include most of the states where gambling has been legalized long ago, and the gambling market is organized and regulated. In addition to that, issues of safe and responsible gambling are given special attention in these countries, and the process of organizing gambling must include effective regulatory measures required to minimize potential harm and ensure a positive gambling experience. In general, national regulators use all necessary tools to ensure fairness, transparency and protection of citizens' rights, and monitor compliance with rules and standards for the provision of gambling services to prevent fraud by game organizers and to protect vulnerable individuals.
The relationship between the level of happiness and the presence of a long positive history of the development of legal gambling has been traced in these countries for many years. For example, Finland and Denmark top this year's ranking of the happiest countries. In both countries, gambling has been legal for a long time, and the Danish system of organizing the gambling market is a kind of model for all Scandinavian countries, exactly half of which are in the top ten of the rating: Finland(1), Denmark(2), Iceland(3), Sweden(6), and Norway (7).
Let me remind you that the method of measuring the happiness index is based on the assessment of the well-being of one's life in the temporal perspective: past, present, future. It was developed by D. Cantrill and has the form of a ladder with eleven steps from 0 to 10, where 10 (the highest rating) symbolizes "the best possible life" and 0 (the lowest) symbolizes "the worst possible life". In addition to that, the very definition of well-being is divided into the following categories: GDP per capita, level of social support, length of healthy life, level of freedom, level of development of charity and corruption in the society.
According to these indicators, Scandinavian countries demonstrate stable high level of satisfaction with life by their citizens year after year. At the same time, the Scandinavian legal gambling market has shown the fastest development rates in Europe in recent years.
Despite the widespread myth that the increase in the number of gamblers is associated with a decrease in people's quality of life and the development of gambling addiction, the Scandinavian countries clearly refute it year after year.