Research in the field of gambling disorders funded by gambling providers: lessons to learn from the pharmaceutical industry?

Introduction: The importance of research funding for potential conflicts of interests has been widely discussed in the field of substance-related disorders: research funding by industries producing alcohol, tobacco or drugs as well as by pharmaceutical companies contains a substantial risk of publication bias, conflicts of health care authorities as well as researchers and opinion leaders in the field of addiction research and medicine. Disclosure of all conflicts of interest is an indispensable consequence in every case. Extent of financial support, fields of sponsoring and publication bias are presented. Due to parallels between funding in substance related research and research on pathological gambling and the industrial interest in research of pathological gambling interferences as common in the research of other substances have to be considered as problematic. Discussion and Conclusion: We need (1) evaluation of the potential conflicts of interest on the part of state organizations (2) limitation of advertising and indirect sponsoring, (3) disclosure of any financial and non-financial relationship and, in particular, the scope of a financial relationship between universities, research institutes, study leaders, authors, reviewers and responsible editors of research journals on the gambling providers, (4) a rating system that quantifies a potential publication bias, (5) an exclusion of persons with significant sponsorship in the past five years from responsible functions with regard to the field of gambling, and (6) a pool of public funds for research funding managed by an independent body.