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 coronavirus (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

6 - Online harms

The Online Harms Bill designed to strengthen protection is currently under Parliamentary scrutiny. ABSG’s advice called for the inclusion of gambling harms in this work²⁵. The Government has also held a call for evidence in relation to lootboxes which has generated an unprecedented response rate. ABSG provided its advice to the Commission on this topic in February 2021. We note that whilst not captured as a gambling product, consumers – including children – experience these as gambling.²⁶

The call for evidence creates an opportunity for the Government to consider how best to address the risks associated with these products within the wider debate about reducing harms from online activity.

References

²⁵ Reducing online harms, ABSG, July 2019

²⁶ Skins in the game (opens in new tab), Royal Society for Public Health, December 2019

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Gambling Act Review

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Last updated: 8 July 2021

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