What’s at stake: new gambling composite stories

Stories of gambling harm in Glasgow.

What’s at Stake is a co-created collection of composite stories that reflect the realities and experiences of gambling. A composite story brings together experiences shared by multiple people to tell a single story.

The project set out to hear the voices of parts of society that we don’t normally hear from in relation to gambling harm – Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME), children and young people and women. 

Some of the themes identified within these stories include: mental health, trauma, self-harm, parenting issues, accessing and signposting to support, affected others, criminality, substance use and suicidal thoughts.

“I won’t go into it here, but the debt increased and the stupid things I did increased too. I say stupid but they were worse than stupid. Dangerous. Destructive. Catastrophic. Criminal. ” – extract from Money for Milk.

The stories highlight what has helped people to seek support, to identify the harms they or others were experiencing as a result of gambling, as well as the supports that have aided their recovery journey. These include: relationships and support from people around them, professional support, accessing support services or organisations in their community, talking about their experiences and changes in behaviours and habits.

“Someone told me that recovery is more powerful than addiction and I like the idea of that. I know it to be true because I’ve recovered once before. So that’s where I am.” – extract from See. Recovery.

These stories reflect individual experiences and have been told from different perspectives and do not represent the experiences of all people or communities impacted by gambling harms in Glasgow.

What’s at Stake was facilitated by Recollective and commissioned by Glasgow City HSCP and Public Health Scotland. It was developed to highlight the harms experienced by different groups. These stories will be used to raise awareness throughout our communities of the harm from gambling and address stigma which prevents many from seeking help. The ALLIANCE Gambling Harm Lived Experience Forum were consulted for their views on the development of this project. The stories represented in this project have been told by people living in Glasgow City who have experienced direct or indirect harms from gambling.

This project is part of the pilot to take a whole-system approach to mitigate the impact of gambling harm in Glasgow, led by Public Health Scotland and wider partners.

This pilot has also contributed to the implementation of the Glasgow City Health Improvement Strategy and led to the development of the Glasgow City Gambling Harms Action Plan. This work is supported by a multi-agency group on gambling harm, chaired by Glasgow City Council.

To find out more about the What’s at Stake project and read the stories, visit their website here.

To contact the Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme and or discuss the work for the Scottish Lived Experience Gambling Harm Forum please email gambingharm@alliance-scotland.org.uk

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