Abstract
This study developed the Trauma-Hope-Agency Nexus, a transdisciplinary conceptual model for analyzing Gambling Disorder among young adults in post-conflict Monrovia, Liberia. Employing a systematic literature review methodology, the research synthesized evidence from clinical neuroscience, trauma psychology, cognitive behavioral science, anthropology, and African religious studies. The findings suggest that compulsive digital sports betting functions as a triple asylum: (1) a neurobiological escape from trauma-induced autonomic dysregulation, (2) a cognitive-behavioral arena providing an illusion of control amidst systemic powerlessness, and (3) a spiritual system that fills existential voids with a materialistic eschatology of chance. The model reveals how digital betting economies may exploit interconnected vulnerabilities unique to post-conflict, youth-marginalized settings. The study concludes that effective intervention might require integrated praxis bridging clinical trauma-informed care, public policy addressing structural unemployment, and religious institutions developing a Public Health Theology that reconstructs hope within community and vocation. This holistic framework reframes gambling addiction from an individual moral failing to a potential symptom of collective psychospiritual distress.
