The disruption caused by Covid-19 in the educational sector may last longer than originally predicted. To better understand the current situation, this article analyses the mental health status of university students during the pandemic and investigates the learning conditions needed to support students. The sample included 557 undergraduate students who took part in an online survey. Overall, the students reported coping well during lockdown but indicated that lecturers were challenged by distance teaching, which created some stress for the students.

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has had a major impact on most societies worldwide, including the closure of non-essential businesses in spring 2020. The present study considers its impact upon gambling behavior. Particularly, changes in self-reported gambling by Swiss, land-based casino players are examined. The main characteristics of respondents who played or did not play during lockdown are also investigated. This study is embedded in an ongoing longitudinal study that examines the gambling behavior of casino players at three points in time. All respondents who had participated in the first wave of the longitudinal study by the cut-off date (15th March 2020) were asked about their gambling behavior during lockdown in a supplementary online survey three weeks after the end of lockdown. A total of 55% of the 110 respondents reported having played during lockdown. Gambling intensity significantly decreased (p < 0.001) in our sample. Considering only those respondents (n = 66) who reported having gambled during lockdown, gambling intensity also decreased (p < 0.001), but online gambling significantly increased (p < 0.002). Those players who have increased their gambling activity require particular attention. It is important that casinos respond with appropriate player protection measures to those who have increased their gambling activity during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an extensive impact on the global higher education sector. In a written survey, staff and students at the Lucerne School of Social Work reported how they had coped with the challenges to their teaching or respective learning situation. The initial survey was conducted during the lockdown in spring 2020, and the follow-up survey was performed in the period of relaxed sanitary measures in summer 2020. During the first wave of the survey, 51 employees and 225 students participated. In the follow-up survey, 28 employees and 117 students partook. Findings indicate that the increased workload created by the transition was stressful for both staff and students but overall was handled well. Staff and students who felt supported by the university management experienced less psychological distress. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, there has been an effort to develop hybrid forms of teaching. Because the social work curriculum contains building blocks that are difficult to implement in the form of distance learning, the transition posed challenges for both staff and students. During times of transition, university management must carefully assess the support needs of staff and students and take appropriate action.

The Swiss Youth and Media Act, which is about to enter into force, is an attempt to provide a legislative framework for video game use. Among other inclusions, the law intends to make providers more accountable by taking measures to protect minors from harm that can be caused by improper use of video games. However, it is a challenge to create a legal framework that can adequately regulate the evolving features of video games. Legislators must find a suitable regulatory approach which takes into account the fact that there is an increasing convergence between video games and gambling, particularly with the introduction of loot boxes. Moreover, there is a need for regulation, including the prohibition of misleading designs, the introduction of additional protection for minors, and the assurance of transparency of transactions. Appropriate policy legislation and consumer-protection measures are needed to protect people using these types of products, particularly children and adolescents. Further work should focus on assessing game characteristics to refine regulatory models to promote safe gaming. Based on experiences from the field of psychoactive substances as well as that of gambling, it is now a matter of developing a matrix of harm with elaborated categories: a tool that makes it possible to evaluate the potential harms of certain game design in an evidence-based manner.

Introduction: Gambling can have serious consequences for many aspects of a person’s life. Yet relatively few people with gambling problems seek help. This study examines the extent to which exclusion from casino venues among other factors may act as a motivator for further help-seeking among casino gamblers (both landbased and remote) with at-risk or disordered gambling behavior. In addition, the barriers that prevent gamblers from accepting help are examined.Methods: Gamblers from Swiss casinos completed a written questionnaire twice, at 6-month intervals. The questions included whether they had sought help in the past 6 months.Results: For those with a SOGS-R rating of 1 or over (n = 173) at the second survey point, a difference in help-seeking was found between the excluded and non-excluded gamblers (p < .001), suggesting that exclusion may be a motivator for help-seeking. Reported differences in levels of debt (p = .006), recognition of gambling problems (p = .010) and severity of gambling-related problems (p = .004) can be taken to suggest that other motivating factors may also influence help-seeking behavior. With regard to the support sought, the most frequently used forms of support were specialized addiction counseling centers (39.5%), followed by self-help groups (21.1%) and remote counseling centers (10.5%). In terms of barriers, reasons relating to attitude, such as denial, appear to pose greater barriers than treatment-related concerns.Discussion: From a public health perspective, an overarching strategy is required to increase the share of help-seekers among casino gamblers through targeted measures.

Swiss gambling legislation is unique in that it includes health concerns and obligations for gambling operators. Specifically, the operators are required to provide social measures for the prevention of problem gambling. Moreover, gamblers with financial problems must either be banned from all casinos in Switzerland or exclude themselves. This study examines the reasons that lead to the application for a voluntary exclusion. It also considers to what extent excluded gamblers circumvent their respective prohibitions. Furthermore, it aims to identify the self-reported reasons why gamblers seek to lift the exclusion. The present study is the first of its kind to examine these questions, using data provided from three Swiss Casinos. A first step in the study involved analyzing the data obtained by trained Shift Managers during interviews with 8,170 gamblers, with the interviews taking place between 2006 and 2015. An invalidated casino questionnaire, based on DSM-IV criteria, was also completed by 3,650 participants from this sample. A second step involved evaluating forms. These forms were the documents completed during interviews with 1,005 gamblers who had successfully applied to have their interdiction terminated, with the person responsible for implementing social measures completing the forms. The findings indicated that most players had found other ways to gamble, during the exclusion period. The main reason gamblers gave for wishing to remove their ban was wanting to be able to visit a casino again. The possible reasons for this discovery are discussed, alongside the benefits and drawbacks of using industry-generated data. Résumé  La législation suisse sur les jeux est unique en ce sens qu’elle inclut les problèmes de santé et des obligations pour les opérateurs de jeux. Plus précisément, ces derniers sont tenus de prévoir des mesures sociales pour prévenir la dépendance au jeu. De plus, les joueurs qui ont des problèmes financiers doivent soit être exclus de tous les casinos suisses, soit s’en exclure de manière volontaire. Cette étude examine les raisons qui sous-tendent la demande d’exclusion volontaire. Elle examine également dans quelle mesure les joueurs exclus contournent leur exclusion et elle vise à déterminer les raisons invoquées par les joueurs pour demander la levée de l’exclusion. La présente étude est la première du genre à examiner ces questions, en utilisant les données fournies par trois casinos suisses. Une première étape de l’étude a consisté à analyser les données obtenues auprès de 8 170 joueurs par des chefs de quart qualifiés, entre 2006 et 2015. De cet échantillon, 3 650 participants ont également répondu à un questionnaire non validé sur les casinos, basé sur les critères du DSM-IV. Une deuxième étape a consisté à évaluer les formulaires que la personne responsable de l’application des mesures sociales avait remplis lors d’entretiens auprès de 1 005 joueurs qui avaient réussi à faire lever leur exclusion. Les résultats indiquent que la plupart des joueurs ont trouvé d’autres moyens de jouer pendant la période d’exclusion. La principale raison invoquée par les joueurs pour la levée de leur exclusion est qu’ils souhaitaient pouvoir se rendre à nouveau dans un casino. Nous discutons des raisons possibles de cette situation, ainsi que des avantages et des inconvénients de l’utilisation de données générées par le secteur.