GambleAware – gambling harms data profiles

GambleAware provides information to help people make informed decisions about their gambling. It is an independent, grant-making charity commissioning prevention and treatment services across England, Scotland and Wales, including commissioning research and evaluation to improve knowledge of what works in prevention.

Aims

GambleAware wanted to create regional and local area gambling harms data profiles for each region, Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency in Great Britain, for use by professionals across Parliament, local government and public health bodies.

We first created these reports for GambleAware in 2022 and they now wish to update the reports to include new data from the Annual GB Treatment and Support Survey 2022 as well as newly published data from Census 2021.

Methods

Regional profiles

We created area profiles for each region in England as well as separate profiles for Scotland and Wales as a whole.

The profiles cover:

• An overview of gambling harms prevalence in the region, including providing a rank relative to other regions.
• Variations in gambling frequency, motivations for gambling, usage and reported demand for treatment and support.
• Analysis of the levels of gambling harm prevalence across key socio-demographic groups including; age, gender, social grade, ethnicity highest qualification level, relationship status, economic activity and religion.

Specifically, the analysis explores:

• Which socio-demographic groups have higher overall prevalence of gambling harm (by level of severity) in the region?
• Do specific socio-demographic groups exhibit higher gambling harm prevalence in a specific region, compared with other regions in Great Britain?
• Key local geographic, demographic, and socio-economic factors which are potentially correlated with gambling harms.
• The social and economic impact of gambling harms in each region based on research from the PHE Evidence Review and NIESR calculations on the economic and social cost of gambling-related harms.

Local profiles

We created area profiles for each Local Authority (LA) and Parliamentary Constituency (PC) in Great Britain.

The profiles cover:

• An overview of gambling harms prevalence in each LA / PC, benchmarked against regional and national comparators
• Services and support for gambling harms, including demand for and reported usage
• Social and economic impacts of gambling harms
• Key differences in social and demographic factors that are potentially correlated to gambling harms
• Details of the treatment and support services available in each area.

Findings

Some key findings at regional level include:

• While 60% of adults living in Great Britain (GB) reported participating in any gambling activity in 2022, there is variation across regions with North East reporting the highest levels of gambling (64.1%) and London the lowest (55.6%).
• The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) measures levels of gambling behaviour, which may cause harm to an individual. London has the highest levels of people with negative gambling consequences – with 16.8% of respondents with a score of 1 or more on the PGSI. The South West region has the lowest levels – with 10.2% of respondents with a score of 1 or more.
• 8.1% of gamblers in GB have reported spending more money on gambling in the last 12 months. East Midlands and London have the highest proportion of gamblers reporting increased spending on gambling at 10.2% and 13.6% respectively.
• 6.7% of gamblers in GB have reported spending more time on gambling in the last 12 months. East Midlands and London have the highest proportion of gamblers reporting increased spending on gambling at 8.0% and 11.4% respectively.

Amy Sweet at GambleAware tells us; “These regional and local profiles provide an important snapshot of gambling harms prevalence and usage and reported demand for treatment and support. They are incredibly useful in starting a dialogue with local authorities who require data in order to better understand the situation in their area. The Parliamentary Constituency versions can be used to engage with MPs and provides them with the evidence they need to influence government. Before the profiles were created we only had raw data and maps to share, these profiles have greatly improved our ability to start conversations with local policy makers and will be fundamental in changing how local systems respond to gambling harms.”

Find out more about our Research Services.

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