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  3. Progress Report on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms

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Progress Report on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms

ABSG progress report 2020

Published
26 June 2020

Last updated
19 August 2021 - Changes

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  1. Contents
  2. Section 6: Recommendations and priorities for 2020
  3. Recommendations – Prevention and education

Recommendations – Prevention and education

ABSG’s key recommendations are:

  • Progress industry challenges vigorously. Work is needed to build on the proposals developed by industry – going further where these have fallen short of expectations. People with lived experience should inform this work.
  • Include gambling metrics in the Public Health Outcomes Framework for England and equivalent public health frameworks for Scotland and Wales. This will ensure gambling activity can be identified at a local level and interventions targeted to at risk groups.
  • Evaluate whole systems approaches to reduce gambling related harms. Positive progress has been made by establishing pilots in Greater Manchester, London and Glasgow. In order to support similar activity in new areas, the learning from these pilots should be used to develop guidance for local authorities on how to incorporate a system wide approach to gambling.
  • Improve activity and evaluation to prevent harm in people who have not yet started to exhibit risky behaviour. A key audience for primary prevention activity is children. Although great care is needed to avoid elevating risks, we also need to recognise that gambling participation and harms are widespread in this population group. There is an opportunity to build on steps in education by including gambling harms in PSHE outcome measures. The need for evaluation of this type of activity is paramount.
  • Make suicide prevention a priority area for action. Steps should be taken to embed the understanding of risk of suicide associated with gambling into national suicide prevention strategies in England, Scotland and Wales.

Measures of Longer-Term Success

Aiming for

  • Comprehensive prevention plan – including universal prevention activity and activity focusing on higher risk groups.

Minimum

  • All prevention activities evaluated for impact.

Stop

  • Activity that is not being evaluated.
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Recommendations – Delivery and governance Next section
Recommendations – Treatment and support
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