Tackling gambling harms in Wessex

Academics, clinicians and policymakers across the region won funding to deliver new research to tackle and prevent gambling harms. Working together, they are defining relapse, exploring digital approaches to treatment and assessning the role of neurodiversity in gambling disorder.

The cost of gambling-related harms to the UK economy is estimated at around £1.4bn per year. These harms impact the healthcare and criminal justice systems as well as negatively affecting individuals and communities. A lack of high quality independent evidence on gambling-related harms is a major barrier to effective policy, prevention and treatment.

Wessex is host two Gambling Harms Research and Innovation Partnerships (GHRIPs), collaborative projects aiming to build networks of stakeholders, including people with lived experience, to develop new research programmes around specific themes. The University of Southampton is leading a partnership focused on the structural drivers of gambling-related harms, while also collaborating with the University of Hertfordshire to study digital gambling ecosystems.

The successful UKRI bid was supported by the Southern Gambling Service’s Lived Experience Advisory Group, funded by Wessex Health Partners.

Dr Jeremy Solly, Clinical Research Fellow, University of Southampton, said: “Wessex Health Partners' involvement in our work has been transformative. The support to establish the Lived Experience Advisory Group was essential for attracting UKRI funding.

"Despite gambling disorder being a significant concern, treatment provision and research infrastructure remain underdeveloped. The rapid evidence reviews will help identify the gaps in the evidence base and inform the work of the GHRIPs.

"By building a network of stakeholders who are committed to developing large-scale collaborative projects, we aim to design new prevention and treatment strategies, particularly for underserved communities who are at higher risk of gambling-related harms.”