Towards a normative theory of gambling self-exclusion agreements

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dc.check.date2030-09-30
dc.check.infoControlled Access
dc.contributor.advisorDonnelly, Mary
dc.contributor.advisorWhite, Fidelma
dc.contributor.authorLong, Bernarden
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-15T10:26:06Z
dc.date.available2025-05-15T10:26:06Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.date.submitted2024
dc.descriptionControlled Access
dc.description.abstractGambling self-exclusion agreements enable a person to have themselves prevented from gambling for some future period. In light of evidence of their effectiveness in helping problem gamblers manage their addiction, these agreements enjoy growing popularity and several jurisdictions now oblige gambling operators to offer self-exclusion to their clientele. Despite this growing popularity, however, self-exclusion has yet to be subject to detailed theoretical investigation, an oversight which has left it bereft of a robust theoretical foundation and may have contributed to dissonance in its operation across jurisdictions. In this thesis, I seek to develop a normative theoretical framework for self-exclusion. As a precommitment device which is initiated by the problem gambler, it is instinctive to view it as primarily based in an exercise of the agent’s autonomy. Though this regard for autonomy is vital to self-exclusion’s value, however, I will argue that it only partially provides its theoretical justification. Rather, viewing self-exclusion through the lens of autonomy generates the self-exclusion problem, i.e. the existence of two conflicting preferences (to gamble and to be restrained from gambling). As this thesis will argue, however, an exclusively autonomy-based conception of self-exclusion cannot justify the precedence afforded to the preference for restraint, upon which self-exclusion’s operation necessarily relies. Rather, the self-exclusion problem can only be resolved in favour of the preference to be restrained from gambling based on a substantive, paternalistic norm. This revelation therefore casts self-exclusion as a device which is characterised by both paternalistic and autonomy-based features. From this finding, I develop a novel framework for conceptualising gambling self-exclusion agreements, namely that they are best conceived of as a form of opt-in paternalism. This innovative model renders self-exclusion’s seemingly conflicting theoretical commitments to autonomy and paternalism intelligible and provides normative guidance for its operation. Having developed and explicated the opt-in paternalism model, I apply it to areas of self-exclusion’s operation which are particularly dissonant across jurisdictions and demonstrate its value in resolving this dissonance and guiding self-exclusion policy according to a robust and comprehensive theoretical framework.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationLong, B. G. 2024. Towards a normative theory of gambling self-exclusion agreements. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
dc.identifier.endpage313
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/17497
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2024, Bernard Geoffrey Long.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectGambling self-exclusion agreementsen
dc.subjectAutonomyen
dc.subjectPaternalismen
dc.subjectPrecommitmenten
dc.subjectGambling lawen
dc.subjectGambling regulationen
dc.titleTowards a normative theory of gambling self-exclusion agreements
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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