Report

ABSG Progress Report on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms – Year Two

ABSG - Year two Progress Report on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms

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Published
7 July 2021

Last updated
8 July 2021 - Changes

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Contents

• ABSG Progress Report on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms – Year Two

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• Executive summary
• Recommendations
• Introduction
• - Introduction
• - Background
• - Impact of Covid-19 on partnership working
• - Trends in gambling
• - Gambling Act Review
• - Online harms
• Delivery and governance
• - Delivery and governance
• - Progress involving people with lived experience of gambling harms.
• - Mixed picture of national strategic co-ordination of implementation
• - Metrics for measuring harm
• - Evaluation of policy
• - Funding
• - Research
• Prevention and education
• - Prevention and education
• - Improved regulatory protections
• - Suicide and gambling
• - Improved profile of gambling harms as a public health issue
• - Increased engagement from the financial services sector
• - Gambling is not yet fully integrated with local public health activity
• - Increased education and awareness raising activity
• Treatment and support
• - Treatment and support
• - Expansion of treatment and support services in new areas
• - The evidence base for treatment is developing but incomplete
• - Need for more integrated treatment services
• - Clarification of referral pathways required
• - Triage and completed treatments
• - Lack of independent quality assurance
• - Follow-up support
• Conclusions
• Annex 1: Priority Metrics for measurement of National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms

4 - Trends in gambling

The Gambling Commission’s monitoring of trends in gambling behaviour over the past year has revealed¹⁵:

• the closure of land-based premises during the pandemic, resulting in a reduction in overall participation rates across the gambling industry, from 47% to 40%¹⁶
• the growth of online gambling activity – particularly online betting - with significant spikes coinciding with the return of top-flight football in June 2020 and the traditionally busy month of December¹⁷
• evidence of trends associated with a greater risk of harm for some consumers
• there has been a significant increase in sessions lasting over one hour for online slots¹⁸, and overall increases in gambling amongst those who were already most engaged (i.e., those who take part in three or more forms of gambling)¹⁹. Just under a third of active male and female gamblers increased their frequency of gambling on at least one form of gambling activity, and women shielding for health reasons were more likely to experience gambling harms²⁰
• a drop in the prevalence of moderate risk gamblers from 1.5% in March 2020 to 0.6% in 2021²¹. Low risk gamblers also reduced from 2.7% to 1.9% over the same period. Although any reduction in these figures is to be welcomed, ABSG urges a high level of caution in how these figures are interpreted. It is widely recognised that problem gambling rates are not the same as measuring gambling harms – they do not reflect others affected by an individual’s gambling nor do they capture the societal cost of harms. Problem gambling rates also fail to inform us about the nature of harms experienced²². This is an area where further research and data collection is required²³ – as referenced later in this report.

References

¹⁵ Covid-19 research, Gambling Commission – resource providing full online library of Gambling Commission monitoring and trends data over full period of the pandemic.

¹⁶ Gambling behaviour in 2021: Findings from the quarterly telephone survey - Gambling Commission, March 2021

¹⁷ (Table 4) Gambling business data on gambling activity during Covid-19, Gambling Commission, March 2021

¹⁸ (Table 3) Gambling business data on gambling activity during Covid-19, Gambling Commission, March 2021

¹⁹ Market overview for November 2020 - consumer research, Gambling Commission (accessed April 2021)

²⁰ The impact of the initial Covid-19 lockdown upon regular sports bettor in Britain: findings from a cross-sectional online study, Wardle et al, Science Direct, July 2021

²¹ Gambling behaviour in 2021: Findings from the quarterly telephone survey, Gambling Commission, March 2021. NB – This survey also found a non-statistically significant change in the problem gambling rate from 0.6% to 0.4%

²² The Responsible Gambling Strategy Board’s advice on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms 2019-2022, RGSB, February 2019

²³ Defining, measuring and monitoring gambling-related harms, National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms, Gambling Commission, April 2019

Previous section
Impact of Covid-19 on partnership working Next section
Gambling Act Review

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Last updated: 8 July 2021

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