GambleAware recently published a study highlighting how marginalized communities in the UK engage with gambling, often using it as a coping mechanism for various life challenges. Conducted by The National Centre for Social Research, the analysis draws from 138 previous studies to understand the impact of gambling on socially excluded groups.
Focus on vulnerable communities
The research examined several groups, including those at risk of homelessness, older adults, individuals with disabilities, neurodiversity, mental health issues, criminalized communities, and vulnerable migrants such as asylum seekers. The findings suggest that members of these groups frequently turn to gambling to cope with difficulties stemming from social exclusion or discrimination.
Coping with life’s challenges
These challenges include loneliness, mental health struggles, migration-related stress, unemployment, job insecurity, poor working conditions, and poverty. The study reveals a consistent pattern across all groups, where gambling serves as a means to manage these stressors.
Need for greater awareness and support
Zoë Osmond, Chief Executive at GambleAware, emphasized the need for increased engagement with marginalized communities to raise awareness about the risks of gambling harm. She highlighted the importance of ensuring that service providers can adequately meet the diverse needs of these groups. Osmond also mentioned GambleAware’s Improving Outcomes Fund, designed to support organizations helping people from different communities.
Concentration of gambling venues in deprived areas
The research points out that gambling venues are disproportionately located in deprived areas of the UK, where marginalized and isolated communities are more likely to live. This socioeconomic disenfranchisement increases their exposure to gambling in daily life.
Stigma and its impact
Stigma plays a significant role in these communities’ gambling behaviors and their willingness to seek support for gambling harm. The study underscores the importance of GambleAware’s campaign to reduce the stigma surrounding problem gambling. Marginalized groups often face overlapping stigmas related to drug use, homelessness, and mental health issues, which intersect with gambling stigma.
Voices from experience
Natalie, an individual with lived experience of gambling harm and homelessness, highlighted the need for stable housing to facilitate recovery from gambling addiction. She stressed the importance of accessible support services and sufficient housing options for those affected by addiction.
Recommendations for improved support services
The report recommends making gambling treatment services more accessible to meet the specific needs of marginalized groups and to remove barriers to support. Dr. Sokratis Dinos from NatCen’s Centre for Gambling Research emphasized the role of compounding inequalities, stigma, exclusion, and discrimination in increasing vulnerability to gambling harms.
Call for further research
The study calls for more research into the links between gambling and marginalized groups, noting a lack of current evidence and understanding of their needs and the harm they experience. GambleAware has initiated several campaigns to address gambling issues within marginalized groups, including a £4m funding program to improve outcomes for women and minority communities affected by gambling harm.
