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Evidence theme 3 - Gambling-related harms and vulnerability

Evidence theme 3 - Gambling-related harms and vulnerability

This theme is about:

  • gaining a better understanding of the different ways that consumers can experience harms
  • being able to identify these consumers who may be more vulnerable or at risk of experiencing harms.

It is one of the Gambling Commission’s three licensing objectives to protect children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling and this has been at the heart of many regulatory changes in recent years, informed by a wealth of research on the topic. However, even defining vulnerability can be challenging, as a consumer’s vulnerability is not necessarily static.

The Commission has a commitment to collect robust, timely insights for a range of gambling behaviours, including the extent to which gambling harms are experienced. The range of gambling experiences and product risks are considered in different themes. There are many more situational and demographic factors linked to gambling-related harms, as well as evidence of inequalities in the way that harms are experienced. This warrants more in-depth research requiring different research tools and partnerships with other agencies that may inform policies for the prevention of harms.

Early gambling experiences are considered in evidence theme 1 but, among adults, research has shown links between gambling and harms such as financial losses and bankruptcy9, anxiety and depression10, and intimate partner violence11 and others. At its most extreme, gambling-related harms have been linked with increased suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and completed suicides.12 We need to continue to build high quality evidence , gathered within Great Britain, to establish whether and to what extent we can make causational links between gambling and severe harms.

Similarly, factors that increase an individual’s vulnerability to gambling-related harm have been identified as including events which can happen to anybody at any stage of life, including bereavement, relationship breakdown, poor health and impulsivity 13. A greater understanding of the impact of these factors and how best to offer timely protections against increased risks is important for all who are involved in this sector.

Other demographic characteristics of interest that may be experiencing harm in a different manner include gender, age and socio-economic groups. Other factors that remain under-researched in relation to their association with gambling-related harms include marginalised and under-represented groups, those with neurodiversities (such as autism or ADHD) and the experiences of different ethnic groups. As well as harms experienced people's own gambling, more needs to be done to understand the impact on families and friends of people who gamble, former gamblers who are still impacted by the consequences of their gambling and still remain exposed to gambling advertising, and society as a whole.

This theme, perhaps more than any of the others, has the widest range of potential questions associated with it, and this synopsis is far from exhaustive. Even with a period of three years, it will take significant resources to investigate many of these sub-topics and it is likely to require a blend of evidence from longitudinal, co-produced research with people with lived experience of gambling-related harms, account data and in-depth qualitative sources to gain a better understanding.

Example research questions within this theme

These are the type of questions that could be considered in relation to this theme:

  • Which individual circumstances (situational or related to demographics) increase vulnerability to gambling-related harms?
  • What’s the relationship between gambling-related harms and different co-occurring conditions?
  • What are the experiences of people affected by someone else’s gambling?
  • What early interventions are effective in reducing gambling-related harms?

Evidence theme 3 - Progress made in year one

The Gambling Commission completed the development of new survey questions on the consequences of gambling and gambling harms on people who gamble, and people who are affected by someone else’s gambling.

GambleAware have published several studies exploring the impact of gambling on minority communities , and secondary analysis of their Treatment and Support Survey exploring the relationship between mental health and gambling harms.

The Behavioural Insights Team have been conducting a number of studies assessing the effectiveness of a range of interventions on reducing gambling harms.

Forward look

Headline findings on the consequences of gambling for people who gamble, and people affected by someone else’s gambling. This will include data from the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) and new questions on the consequences of gambling, will be published in the first annual publication of the GSGB in July 2024.

We are conducting secondary analysis on the longitudinal data collected in our Consumer Voice research exploring the impact of increases in the cost of living on gambling behaviour, to explore whether and how participants’ PGSI scores change over a short period of time.

Important research is underway by academics at the University of Lincoln to conduct a psychological autopsy study to examine the events and circumstances leading to gambling-related suicide, alongside other studies funded as part of combined report for 2016 (opens in new tab) funded by Greo.

Notes

9 Gambling-related harms evidence review: an abbreviated systematic review of harms (opens in new tab) (PDF), Public Health England, 2021.

10 The impact of gambling on depression: New evidence from England and Scotland (opens in new tab), Sefa A Churchill and L Farrell, Economic Modelling, volume 68, 2018, pages 475 to 483.

11 Intimate partner violence in treatment seeking problem gamblers (opens in new tab), Amanda Roberts, Stephen Sharman, Jason Landon, Sean Cowlishaw, Raegan Murphy, Stephanie Meleck and Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Journal of Family Violence, volume 35, 2020, pages 65 to 72.

12 Problem gambling and suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-harm in England: evidence from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007 (report 1) (opens in a new tab) (PDF), H Wardle, S Dymond, A John, S McManus, report prepared for GambleAware, 2019.

13 Gambling-related harms evidence review: risk factors (opens in new tab) (PDF), Public Health England, 2021.

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Last updated: 11 July 2024

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