Health services in Caserta are paying closer attention to gambling disorder, with local officials reporting a growing trend involving women over 65 who gamble and place bets, particularly in tobacconists.
The observation comes from the addictions department of ASL Caserta, as reported by Il Mattino Caserta. Officials identified the city of Caserta and the Agro Aversano as areas requiring particular attention for gambling-related problems.
An older profile in focus
According to the local health-service account, the emerging profile includes women over 65, often described as pensioners or widows whose children may live elsewhere. Social isolation is presented as part of the background context for some of those cases.
The available research does not establish that widowhood, pension status, or family distance causes gambling disorder, and it does not provide verified counts, prevalence rates, or year-over-year statistics for women over 65 in Caserta. The reported increase reflects observations and monitoring by local health services; its size and statistical significance are not established in the sources acquired.
It is also unclear from the sources how many reported cases concern physical gambling venues versus online gambling.
Younger people and online gambling
The same local account draws a contrast by age. Younger people are described as more attracted to online gambling, while the cases highlighted among older women concern gambling and betting in tobacconists.
ASL Caserta conducts prevention activities in schools, reflecting concern about early exposure and online habits among younger residents.
Why health authorities treat it as a disorder
The Istituto Superiore di Sanità describes gambling disorder as a condition that can damage social, family, and working life. It can create serious debt and lead to deception or illegal behavior.
That national framing helps explain why local services treat repeated gambling not only as a financial problem, but as a health issue with family, social, and occupational consequences.
What Caserta services have tried
Caserta health services have used several practical tools to reach people affected by gambling and to better understand local habits.
Those efforts have included telephone support, questionnaires distributed in schools, and an attempted help desk inside a bingo venue. The sources do not provide a detailed evaluation of the outcomes of these initiatives.
A regional plan in Campania
Beyond the provincial level, Regione Campania has introduced a regional plan to address gambling disorder through prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and coordinated training and community intervention.
The acquired sources describe the structure of that response but do not provide a detailed evaluation of its results.
At the national level, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità supports information and awareness work, coordination of the healthcare network, and a national helpline for gambling-related problems.
What remains unclear
Several important questions cannot be answered from the validated sources. There are no verified figures for how many women over 65 in Caserta are affected, how quickly the phenomenon has grown, or how cases divide between venue-based gambling and online gambling.
What the research does support is narrower but still significant: local health authorities see Caserta and the Agro Aversano as priority areas, they report greater involvement of older women in tobacconist betting, they continue school-based prevention aimed at younger people attracted to online gambling, and regional and national institutions frame the issue as a health problem requiring prevention, care, and rehabilitation.
