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Problem gambling provides a strong motivation for perpetrating economic abuse. This study explores the interaction between problem gambling and economic abuse, and how this economic abuse is reinforced by other forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) and underpinned by gendered drivers of violence against women. Interviews were conducted with 18 women with lived experience of economic abuse perpetrated by a male partner with a gambling problem and analyzed using adaptive grounded theory. The women reported that their partner subjected them to numerous forms of economic exploitation (e.g. fraudulent use of her credit card) and economic control (e.g. preventing her from accessing money) to fund his gambling. Patterns of psychological and physical abuse reinforced this economic abuse. Gendered drivers of this violence underpinned this behavior including their partner's perceived entitlement to subordinate, control, and manipulate them. The resulting financial stress undermined the women's capacity to leave the relationship, extending their victimization and deprivation. This integrated exploration highlights that problem gambling and gendered drivers of violence interact to create a context where economic abuse and other forms of violence are perpetrated to obtain money for gambling. Interventions by gambling operators, financial institutions, and support services are needed to reduce gambling-related economic abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a gendered perspective exploring how gambling by a male partner contributes to intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. Unstructured interviews with 30 women with lived experience of male partner violence linked to his gambling were analyzed using adaptive grounded theory. Gendered drivers of violence set the context for IPV experienced by these women. Their male partners held strict patriarchal views about gender roles, controlled decision-making, restricted the woman's independence, and condoned using violence against women. Gambling by the male partner interacted with these gendered drivers to increase the frequency and severity of IPV. They prioritized their gambling above the family's welfare, controlled household finances, and coerced the woman into providing money. Gambling created situations that increased IPV, including anger over losses, family stressors and conflicts, with violent backlash silencing the woman's objections. Violence intensified as the gambling escalated, with short-term cycles of violence directly linked to gambling events. Women experienced financial, psychological, physical and sexual abuse, and patterns of coercive control that maintained a climate of fear. These findings reveal the centrality of gender inequality within intimate relationships as a foundation for IPV, which is then exacerbated by the perpetrator's gambling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]