Severe gambling problems pose ‘similar threats’ to someone’s physical and mental wellbeing as alcohol and drug use or a chronic health condition, claims a new report from GambleAware.
Researchers at the University of Plymouth – in partnership with the University of Bristol, the National Centre for Social Research and others – found that gambling harm could result in a 16 per cent reduction in someone’s ability to carry out everyday tasks, and a 14 per cent reduction in quality of life. These percentages are ‘comparable to those experiencing the highest levels of harm driven by cocaine and alcohol use, as well as those with health conditions including depression and opiate dependence’, the researchers state.
Although cases of severe gambling harms – such as financial crisis and relationship breakdown – clearly have the most individual impact, the ‘largest share of population harm’ comes from the far more common impacts of low- to moderate-severity gambling harms, such as low mood and day-to-day financial issues, the report states. Partners, families and close friends also experience ‘substantial second-hand harms’, with the impacts on their health and wellbeing ‘approaching those experienced by the people who gamble themselves’.
The results show how the tools used to identify problem gambling ‘underestimate the full extent of harm’ to gamblers and the people close to them, the report says. The research represents the ‘first comprehensive effort’ to measure the true extent of the UK’s gambling-related harms through ‘a public health lens’, using the Gambling Harms Severity Index and a companion tool for affected others developed by the researchers – alongside people affected by gambling harm, their families and service providers – and validated through an assessment of more than 4,500 people. Researchers looked at financial impacts, mental and physical wellbeing, relationships and family life, social life and community connections, employment and hobbies, and shame and stigma.
A report published by the University of Bristol last year found that problem gamblers face triple the suicide risk after a year – and quadruple the risk after four years – when compared to people who experience no gambling harms. Meanwhile, a new study from the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods states that bookmakers, off-licences and vape shops now account for one in eight retail premises in the most deprived neighbourhood streets, compared to just one in 12 in the least deprived.
‘Gambling is increasingly being recognised as a public health issue, but the need for better understanding and measurement of gambling-related harms is also widely acknowledged,’ said associate professor in medicine and psychology at the University of Plymouth, Dr James Close. ‘Our findings, and the measures we have designed to reach them, represent a paradigm shift in how we understand and measure gambling harms. By directly capturing actual harm rather than risk, and by including the voices of affected others and those with first-hand experience, they provide a foundation for evidence-based policy and practice that is fully aligned with public health principles.’
The Gambling Harms Severity Index (GHSI): Development of a holistic framework and measurement instruments for gambling-related harms and recovery available here