“Prayer Helps Better Than a Psychologist”: Islam, Capitalism, and Gambling Addiction in Kazakhstan

This article analyses the rapid rise of gambling addiction in Kazakhstanwithin the broader context of Central Asia’s evolving gambling economy. Drawingon ethnographic fieldwork, it shows how digital technologies, regulatory gaps, andneoliberal reforms have expanded gambling access while deepening its harms.Official statistics vastly understate the problem, while unofficial estimates suggesthundreds of thousands are affected. The consequences—family breakdown,indebtedness, and corruption within public institutions—indicate that gamblingaddiction should not be seen merely as an individual pathology but as a structuralvulnerability embedded in digital capitalism and fragile governance. A keycontribution of this study is its focus on religion, particularly Islam, as anunderexplored dimension of coping. Practices such as prayer, fasting, and mosque-based support provide culturally embedded repertoires of resilience, oftenperceived as more effective than secular therapy. Yet these strategies prove fragileunder mounting debts, family obligations, and social pressures, underscoring theneed for complementary measures. The article therefore calls for integratedresponses that combine faith-based, clinical, and structural interventions. Bysituating Kazakhstan’s experience within global debates, it advances a pluralistic,context-sensitive framework that moves beyond Western secular models andoffers fresh insights into gambling addiction in Muslim-majority and post-socialistsocieties.