New report aims to quantify true costs of problem gambling
RGSB teams up with the Gambling Commission, academics and GambleAware for new study
The Gambling Commission has released a new Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB) report which seeks to better understand the issue of gambling related harm.
The report is the result of collaboration between the Gambling Commission, GambleAware, which funded the report and the RGSB, who were represented by Dr Heather Wardle, assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Dr Heather Wardle, lead author of the report, said the publication was a “dramatic step forward in our understanding of gambling”.
“It represents a sea change in thinking about gambling as it recognises that gambling isn’t something that affects just a few individuals but extends far beyond them to affect their families, communities and society,” she said.
The report aims to agree a definition of gambling-related harms that can be used by policy public health officials and policy makers to examine how gambling related harm might be better understood and monitored.
It also aims to develop a framework for action against gambling related harm that considers the impact on the wider community and identify the most effective way of estimating the social cost of problem gambling.
In the report, gambling related harm is defined as ‘the adverse impacts from gambling on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities and society’. The report identifies 50 different metrics for experiences of gambling related harm ranging from loss of employment, relationship breakdown, crime associated with gambling and suicide.
In identifying these metrics, the research aims to break these down into a monetary cost, with the indirect consequence of seeing where there are gaps in current understanding.
Marc Etches, chief executive at GambleAware, which funded the report, said: “Problem gambling is a public health issue that can have serious economic and social consequences not only for individual gamblers but also family, friends, communities and society.
“We need urgently to improve our understanding of what gambling, and its wide-reaching knock-on effects, is costing us.”
Gambling Commission chief executive Neil McArthur added: “While many consumers can enjoy gambling without experiencing harm, we cannot forget the devastating effects it can have on some individuals, families and communities.
“This report shows significant progress in understanding those effects and measuring the impacts on wider society and the economy. We do not see this as a definitive position – it’s very much a work in progress.”