ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Help-Seeking for Gambling Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Norwegian Help Providers and Their Insights into Gamblers
Provisionally accepted
Mathilde Moldestad1,2*
David Emmanuel Smedslund Føinum1,2Philip Lindner3
Jakob Jonsson3
David Forsström3
Nathan Lakew3
Per Carlbring4,5
Ståle Pallesen1,2- 1Norwegian Competence Centre for Gambling and Gaming Research, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
- 2Universitetet i Bergen Institutt for samfunnspsykologi, Bergen, Norway
- 3Karolinska Institutet Institutionen for klinisk neurovetenskap, Stockholm, Sweden
- 4Stockholm universitet Psykologiska institutionen, Stockholm, Sweden
- 5Korea University School of Psychology, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant societal disruptions, including changes in gambling availability, gambling behaviours, and demand for support services. Although gambling support services play a crucial role in aiding individuals experiencing gambling-related harm, research regarding how help providers themselves perceived the pandemic's impact on their work and callers is lacking. This qualitative study investigated Norwegian help providers' experiences of COVID-19 and how it affected gambling and gambling-related conversations. Semi-structured interviews with thirteen help providers were analysed using thematic analysis, identifying five main themes: 1) Gamblers became more open, chatty, and support-seeking, 2) help providers experienced obstacles in offering support, with gamblers being reluctant to and/or impeded from receiving help, 3) COVID-19 created an opportunity to address gambling-related issues, as many became more aware of problematic behaviours amid financial hardship and reduced access to gambling platforms, 4) gambling had a heightened appeal during COVID-19, including perceptions of greater gambling availability in addition to a desire to escape as a motive to gamble, and 5) COVID-19 had minimal impact on support conversations. Despite appearing somewhat contradictory, the findings offer new insights into the multifaceted impact of COVID-19 on gambling and may inform future preventive and intervention efforts.
Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Gambling, gambling support services, help providers, Norway, pandemic
Received: 28 Oct 2025; Accepted: 23 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Moldestad, Føinum, Lindner, Jonsson, Forsström, Lakew, Carlbring and Pallesen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mathilde Moldestad
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