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Report

Qualitative research on the consequences of gambling

Qualitative research on the consequences of gambling: follow-up interviews with participants from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain

Published
8 May 2025

Last updated
8 May 2025 - Changes

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Contents

1 - Introduction

1.1. Background to the research

Last year, the Gambling Commission published findings from its first annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). This survey collected data from a representative random probability sample of more than 9,700 adults in Great Britain, providing insight into gambling behaviours and their potential negative consequences on health, resources and relationships. Participants included people who have, and have not, engaged in gambling. They were asked questions about their views and experiences of playing different games, lotteries and betting, and the effects of these activities on their lives.

Part of the development of the GSGB involved a move towards a more holistic view of gambling and gambling consequences. This included going beyond solely relying on measures based on clinical notions of ‘problem gambling’, such as the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). New questions regarding gambling consequences developed as part of the GSGB include consequences for people who gamble as well as those affected by someone else’s gambling. Impacts covered by these new questions relate to finances, relationships, work and study, or crime. They could be severe in nature (for example, experience of violence or abuse) or potentially adverse (for example, experience of conflict with family or friends).

The GSGB found that 2.8 percent of people who had gambled in the past year experienced at least one severe consequence from their gambling (for example, committing a crime to fund gambling or pay gambling debts). Between 4.0 percent and 6.8 percent of participants experienced, at least occasionally, other potentially adverse consequences from their own gambling (for example, lying to family, or others, to hide the extent of their gambling).

1.2. Research aims

The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) were commissioned to conduct qualitative research with a subset of participants who completed the GSGB and indicated that they had experienced severe and/or potentially adverse consequences from their own gambling in the previous 12 months1. This research aimed to explore the experiences and journeys of these individuals and provide deeper insights into varied experiences of adverse consequences from gambling, including the interrelations between different consequences (either positive or negative). This research builds on the existing survey data and addresses gaps in the GSGB evidence base, as well as some of the broader evidence gaps that the Gambling Commission identified as part of their Evidence gaps and priorities 2023 to 2026. These include early gambling experiences and gateway products, the range and variability of gambling experiences, gambling-related harms and vulnerability, and the impact of operator practices.

The research questions were:

  1. What journeys lead people to experience adverse and/or severe gambling consequences?
  2. What external factors influence and/or contribute to adverse and/or severe gambling consequences?
  3. How are different adverse and/or severe gambling consequences connected in people’s lived experience?
  4. What measures and practices have prevented adverse and/or severe consequences from occurring?

1.3. Report structure

This report is divided into the following sections:

  • Chapter 2 outlines the research methodology
  • Chapter 3 provides context for the report by summarising the impacts of gambling on participants
  • Chapter 4 discusses participants’ journeys with adverse or severe consequences from gambling
  • Chapter 5 considers the interrelation of different adverse or severe consequences from gambling
  • Chapter 6 explores the measures and practices participants have used to prevent or reduce adverse consequences
  • Chapter 7 summarises key findings from the research and provides recommendations on areas for future consideration.

References

1 One of the Gambling Commission’s priorities remains to also understand people’s experience of adverse consequences as a result of someone else’s gambling; however, the present study’s purpose was to only look at people’s experiences of adverse consequences from their own gambling.

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2. Methodology to Qualitative research on the consequences of gambling
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