The study commissioned by Action Against Gambling Harms, conducted by Rachel Hesketh, Vivienne Moxham-Hall, Caroline Norrie, Lucy Strang, and Benedict Wilkinson at the Policy Institute, focused on the costs and benefits of affordability checks, the impact on public services, the effects of childhood gambling on mental health, and issues relating to women gamblers. The researchers reviewed 56 studies related to children, 20 studies related to women, 28 studies related to sport, and 26 studies related to affordability and financial harm.
The study highlighted the lack of research in key areas such as affordability checks, effects on public services, the effects of childhood gambling on mental health, and issues relating to women gamblers. The available evidence on the financial harms of gambling was found to be patchy, with a good body of work focusing on the relationship between poverty and problem gambling, but lacking in terms of the costs of gambling-related harm on public services.
The existing research on children and gambling identified clear associations between youth gambling and negative outcomes such as delinquency, substance misuse, poor academic performance, and mental ill health. School interventions were found to improve knowledge about gambling for young people, but the evidence of their impact in preventing harm was mixed.
Research on women gamblers was determined to be limited, with evidence suggesting that male bias in gambling research has led to women’s needs remaining unidentified and unmet. The available research in this area was mostly from countries other than the UK.
Research on gambling on sport was also found to be patchy, with a focus on specific areas such as fantasy sports and the effect of gambling advertising in sport on children. There is a need for more research overall in this area, including longitudinal studies to better understand the relationships between sports gambling and other negative outcomes.
Chair of Action Against Gambling Harms, Seema Kennedy, hopes that the gaps identified by the study will encourage further research and policymaking to address the effects of gambling on British society.
