All gambling carries risk. We can think of this risk as a spectrum - people whose gambling behaviour fits certain patterns are more likely to experience harm than others. The Illustration below shows potential behaviours associated with levels of risk of gambling harm.
People can move up and down the spectrum, or overlap at points, depending what is happening in their lives and the behaviours they are experiencing.
The main purpose of The Gambling Spectrum is to understand that gambling harm is more of a spectrum of harm, as opposed to traditionally accepted categorizations of gambling behaviour: safe and responsible; and harmful.