SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
GambleAware has launched new interactive maps designed to identify the usage of and reported demand for support and treatment, segmented by local authorities and wards across Great Britain.
Based on the responsible gambling charity’s annual treatment and support survey, GambleAware has outlined differences in gambling participation, usage and reported demand for treatment and support, broken down by area.
The survey produced a nationally representative overview of reported demand and usage of treatment and support, in addition to providing an estimate of the prevalence of gambling harms, enabling GambleAware to produce the interactive maps.
GambleAware has encouraged local authorities in the areas where the highest need for support was identified ‘local authorities to do more to promote the existing help available through the National Gambling Treatment Service’.
“We want to assist local authorities and services in delivering the best possible treatment and support for gambling harms in their area,” said Alison Clare, Research, Information and Knowledge Director at GambleAware.
“These new interactive maps can be used to identify shortfalls between treatment and support services and prevalence of gambling participation and harms, which can be used to inform local responses.
“The existing support available through the National Gambling Treatment Service can be used to help address these shortfalls.”
However, the charity has added that the maps are based on a single set of data and therefore ‘cannot provide an exact result’, and as a result has recommended that local authorities should use the maps in conjunction with local data and information relevant to gambling-related harm.
Furthermore, GambleAware has also further noted that existing efforts to address gambling harms may influence levels of treatment and support uptake in the identified areas.
Other notable research projects conducted by GambleAware this month include the ‘commissioned research’ carried out by Professor Patrick Sturgis and Professor Jouni Kuha of the London School of Economics, following concerns about discrepancies between a YouGov 2019 survey and ‘2018 Health Survey for England’.
The group also recently highlighted an ‘imminent need’ for action on gambling by under-18s, pointing out that more than seven in 10 (71.5%) calls to the National Gambling Helpline from under-18s came from those directly experiencing an issue with gambling.
