As a first go with ChatGPT we asked:

What harms can gambling cause?

In less than a second it replied:

Gambling can cause a number of harms, including:

 

 

1. Addiction: Gambling addiction is a serious problem that can lead to financial ruin, relationship problems, and a host of other negative consequences. People who become addicted to gambling may find it difficult to stop, even when they are losing money and experiencing negative consequences.
2. Financial problems: Gambling can lead to financial problems, especially if a person loses more money than they can afford to lose. This can lead to debt, bankruptcy, and other financial difficulties.
3. Relationship problems: Gambling can strain relationships with family members, friends, and romantic partners. People who gamble may lie about their activities, neglect their responsibilities, and become emotionally distant from their loved ones.
4. Mental health problems: Gambling can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems, especially if a person is dealing with significant financial losses or addiction.
5. Criminal activity: Some people may turn to criminal activity, such as theft or fraud, in order to fund their gambling habits.
6. Health problems: People who gamble may neglect their health, failing to eat properly, exercise, or get enough sleep. This can lead to physical and mental health problems over time.

It’s important to remember that not everyone who gambles will experience these harms, but they are potential risks associated with gambling. If you or someone you know is struggling with a gambling addiction or experiencing negative consequences from gambling, it’s important to seek help.

We couldn’t have put it better!

For many, compulsive gambling occurs alongside substance addiction and negative mental health.

We probably can agree with the above statement from our own experience and observing the behaviour of others.

Traditionally for instance there have always been cultures of drinking and gambling. Working class males culture has historically witnessed the close tie between pub and bookies.

These days, as well as alcohol, drugs like cocaine and amphetamines are associated with gambling. Sometimes people who recover from one addiction such as gambling turn to another. This is called cross-addiction. Often addiction to substances and behavioural patterns occur together.

Several research studies suggest that between 50% and 75% of those with gambling addiction also have an alcohol addiction.

At a lower level, alcohol and other drugs lower inhibition and can encourage risky behaviours including gambling.

While we think addiction is and should be recognised as a severe mental disorder unfortunately it generally isn’t. Among many other things this means that there remains a very unsatisfactory approach by services to supporting the whole person. We so often hear of a situation where and individual is told by ‘mental health sercices’ that they cannot help unless addiction is first brought under control, while addiction services are ill-equipped to deal with things like severe depression. An individual may be sent from pillar to post.

Certianly any addiction may lead to or amplify mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. We also know that for many conditions such as anxiety, depression and trauma  may be a root cause of developing an addiction to behavioural activities such as gambling and substance use provide a quick release from suffering, this known as self-medication.

While many can recover from a single addiction quite quickly – and maybe up to a third of people stop with no support whatsoever – the same is not true for many. At worst, a person may have to deal with the fallout of addiction such as debt, ill physical health, family breakdown, involvement with the criminal justice system, unemplyment, and the shame and guilt that come from internalised stigma. If co-occurring addictions and severe mental health issues are added to the profile, the situation is a tangle of complexities which will require a multi-agency support design appropriate to each individual circumstance. Unfortunately, this ‘whole person’ approach is not often evident.

At grassroots level, the immense value of peer support and initiaves from lived experience provides for many the rock upon which recovery can proceed. The learning from this peer-led work in substance harms is of high magnitude and can be shared with those in recovery from gambling harms.There are, for instance, 12-steps groups for people recovering from both gambling and substance addictions. Further, grassroots expertise can contribute to informing and shaping necessary policies and a rethinking of the field of recovery.

We have prepared a discussion document which you can read here.

In their response to the Department of Culture, Media and Sports consultation towards a Gambling Act White Paper the BMA calls for a focus on prevention of gambling harms, a cross-government working, a call for fully independent research and treatment, a recognition of the association between gambling and alcohol and smoking, attention to the burden of harms unequally carried by different population sectors, and the need for the NHS to treat gambling disorder in parity with other addictive disorders.

The full response is here.

1. Executive Summary

1.1 The BMA welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s inquiry into Gambling Regulation.

1.2 Gambling is a growing public health issue, with the large burden of morbidity and mortality caused by harmful gambling causing increasing alarm in the medical profession.

1.3 Doctors are concerned that the regulation of gambling is inadequate and does not prevent people becoming gamblers or effectively manage those who have developed problems.

1.4 Gambling disorder must be recognised as being as serious and complex a medical problem as other addictions and be able to be treated on the NHS.

1.5 Reports show that 59% of adults in Great Britain had participated in gambling between 2020-2021. Some population groups experience a higher prevalence of gambling: men, young people, black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, and socially deprived groups.

1.6 There is a known link between gambling and behaviours associated with harm, such as drinkingb alcohol and smoking tobacco.

1.7 The BMA suggests four main approaches to better regulate gambling:

o Restricted advertising – to help control exposure, the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) should look further into a range of options ranging from restrictions on gambling advertising through to an advertising ban.

o Independent funding of research and prevention – the current system of voluntary contributions by the gambling industry to a central charity that funds research is not appropriate – instead, there must be a long-term focus on generating independent funding of research and prevention work.

o Focus on prevention – there should be a focus on public health approaches to tackle gambling harms through a combination of prevention methods, including restricted advertising and marketing, restricting licenses and availability, and strengtheningregulatory frameworks.

o Cross government approach – the decision making regarding the regulation of gambling should be made jointly by DCMS and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

A student at Stirling University is seeking people who have used methods such as self-exclusion, spend caps, cooling-off periods, etc. and how effective they have been found to be.

Kaitlyn Evans  will be carrying out online interviews as part of her research  that will be an hour long and there will be no follow-ups. Anonymity will be ensured. The researcher will send details of her study and the interview procedure to you if you’d like to consider taking part.

To express interest and receive further details please contact Kaitlyn at kae00033@students.stir.ac.uk

The prevalence of exttreme gambling harms – identified as a psychiatric disorder, often referred to as addiction – is given by the Gambling Commission as 0.3% of the population. This is often taken – by the gambling industry, for instance – as an ‘official figure’, set in stone. However, a YouGov poll in 2020 set the figure at 2.7%. Meanwhile research continues to find improved ways of data gathering.

Whatever the figure, what has to be added to that is the on average number of ‘affected others’, those harmed by someone else’s severe gambling issues. The average number of people so affected is six making the number of people suffering severe gambling harms using the two figures above is between 1.8% and 16.2% of the population.

However, focusing only on extreme harms disguises the fact that health harms often occur along a spectrum. Alcohol consumption, for instance, may not receive a diagnosis of alcohol dependence syndome but can be seriously damaging to health and negarively affect people around the drinker. Also, with many risky health  behaviours the midly dangerous often leads to moderately and extremly dangerous over time.

In a British Medical Journal of May 2019 the authors argue, in relation to gambling harms:

Harms from gambling affect health and wellbeing and, even at low risk levels, contribute to a loss of quality of life similar to the long term consequences of a moderate stroke, moderate alcohol use disorder, and urinary incontinence. These low level harms arguably contribute more to aggregate social costs than those from people gambling at problematic levels because of the greater population numbers experiencing them.

The impact of gambling behaviours below levels identified as extreme or severe, in other words, can and does bring significant reductions in wellbeing to self and others. The nature of this impact will vary across the thousands or millions of individual stories about ‘lower level’ gambling harms.

We’ve taken the opportunity at the turn of the year to look back to how we started in 2017 with The Machine Zone, and a quick look forward.

We now run five websites which may be confusing. It certainly confuses us! So maybe this page will make things a little clearer. There will be a sixth website soon too! We’ll be hosting our film One Last Spin on its own super-duper website when it is released into the public domain.

Thank you so much to everyone for all the support, encouragement and inspiration that have kept us going. Some days it’s easy to think we’re getting nowhere but there’s always someone in one network or another to bring good news. Whatever the new Gambling Act brings we will all be continuing to do our bit to reduce gambling harms.

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) published a report on gambling harms in Scotland as a public health issue., 12 December 2022.

Access the report here.

A report published today (7 November) describes stark impacts of the cost of living crisis on Scots

It shows increasing issues around physical and mental health and changes in spending behaviours

Conducted by media and marketing companies Union and 56 Degree Insight a survey of a thousands people, adjusted to reflect a representative portion of the population reveals widespread distress and changes in living.

Union’s announcement of the report comes with this:

The report strongly suggested that there is now a sense of ‘permacrisis’ taking hold amongst the general population; the pandemic, Brexit, inflation, Ukraine, Westminster instability and the energy crisis have all created a poisonous, potent and toxic cocktail for the average Scot.

 

Union summarises the report’s main points:

The key findings

• Spike in national anxiety and stress:89% of people living in Scotland expressed serious concerns about the cost of living. 69% reported economic anxiety impacting on mental health including more than a third struggling to sleep at night.
• Scots having less fun?:Scots are drinking less as they cut back, by almost 25%, and 21% are gambling less. Interestingly, 26% of Scots report that they are having less sex. It would seem this economic crisis really is a buzz killer.
• A nation consumed by worry:54% Scots worrying to a major extent on how to pay bills and over four in ten significantly worried on how to put food on the table.
• Cut-backs and delays:Families are significantly cutting back, with 88% of households earning £30-£40K the most concerned by rapid increases in outgoings. Cost cuttings include spending less on new clothing (55%), delaying holiday decisions (45%) and eating out less (57%). 39% expect to spend less on Christmas gifts.
• Personal care takes a hit as wallets tighten:37% will get their hair cut less and less cosmetic procedures like botox and fillers (11%, rising to 21% in image conscious Southern Scotland).
• Changing behaviour:80% of women were changing shops (some or all of the time) and 88% are shifting to less expensive products and brands.

Read the report here: Mood-of-the-Nation_Report

The team at tacklinggamblingstigma.com is inviting people to share their story of harms from their own or someone else’s gambling.

This would be via an informal chat with a researcher by telephone or in person at your convenience.

We are interested in people of all backgrounds and difficulties of any kind or size linked to gambling. No matter what your
story is, where you are from, or what the gambling harm has been, you are the person we want to talk to.

Full details in the flyer and infographic

Tackling Gambling Stigma Interview Infographic

Tackling Gambling Stigma Flyer

If you are suffering from gambling harms or affected by somebody else’s many issues may arise, differently for everybody but sharing common themes. Financial problems, mental health, criminal proceedings, unemployment, relationship and family breakdown to name a few. The first step – which many report was one of the hardest – is to seek support. This may be with a spouse or partner or trusted friend, or via a gambling support line (see the SUPPORT page); some may take the situation to their GP; some will find online forums or join a supprt group such as Gamblers Anonymous or SMART Recovery. Some may do all of these things. In the early days simply opening up and seeking support is tremendously helpful and paople often support a sense of relief.

In a perfect world, an initial approach for support would be able to signpost you to the best pathways to other services which can deal with the several post-gambling issues you have to deal with. However good a treatment plan is for you, one that helps you begin reduce urges to gamble, you may still have considerable legacy burdens to carry such as those mentioned above. Some will have less to bear, some more. One issue that often arises is that a doctor, for instance, does not have the knowledge or understanding to ensure you receive the whole-person support you need; sometimes there are unclear pathways between support options. History suggests – by the voices of lived experience – that if you try such options as those above, especially for many becoming involved in some way with others in recovery, things get better and you find what’s best for you. And, of course, for many the available services, even just one of them, may be all you need.

One particularly useful port of call, even the first place for many, is Citizens Advice. In recent years their staff and volunteers have been trained to advise people and steer them to the most appropriate services for their individual needs. They also work in communities to raise awareness of gambling harms. Included in  a news post on 31 August 2022 about their gambling-related services is:

Another key element of our service is providing advice to clients.  People come into their local CAB office for advice on a range of topics and usually people need help with more than one issue.  Our advisers provide holistic advice to people and equip them with the information they need to decide a way forward.

People who experience gambling harms may be unaware that they are affected, or they may know but are unlikely to disclose this to anyone, not even their family.  A key part of our work is trying to normalise talking about gambling harms and reduce the shame and stigma that is associated with it.  The more that we can raise awareness and train staff to understand the signs, the more people we can help by signposting or referring them onto specialist services who support people affected by gambling harms.

You can read the whole piece here.