Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm

Our work  

Since it began in 2020, the Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme has been working to put the voice of people affected by gambling at the heart of action to reduce gambling harms. It has been doing so by influencing Scottish and national policy and building and nurturing networks.

When one of us is harmed, we are all harmed. Gambling harm affects our communities and our society as a whole. In Scotland, it is estimated that more than 200,000 people are at risk of, or currently experiencing, harm related to their own gambling.¹ On average six people are being affected around each of them, family members, loved ones.²  

We work together with people and organisations for a Scotland where gambling harm is considered in a public health framework that comes with prevention programmes as well as building screening and treatment capacity.

This work includes: 

• Influencing the planning and delivery of several roundtable events, which brought together people with lived experience, policymakers, and those working in the third sector to discuss key issues around gambling harm. 
• Connecting with the media to raise awareness of gambling harm.  
• Writing responses to open consultations relating to the Gambling Act Review White Paper.  
• Engaging with key stakeholders, including policy and decision-makers, on the development of activities to tackle gambling harm in Scotland. 
• Shaping key reports and outputs on gambling harm in Scotland. 

Lived experience forum

The programme hosts the Scottish Gambling Harm Lived Experience Forum. Members of the Forum have all been directly or indirectly affected by gambling harm. The Forum seeks to engage with policy and decision makers to put forward their priorities to effectively prevent, mitigate and reduce gambling harm in Scotland. Forum members have reached collective and personal achievements through their membership, for example getting gambling harm recognised in Scotland’s ‘Creating Hope Together: suicide prevention strategy 2022 to 2032’ or releasing a documentary film titled ‘One Last Spin’.  

Partnerships, working groups and networks

The programme team actively works with organisations interested in reducing gambling harms in Scotland. Membership of the Glasgow Multi Agency Group on Gambling Harms has presented an opportunity to work with a range of organisations in both the third and public sector, including the Health and Social Care Partnership and Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector.  

The programme is active in the Gambling Related Harms Working Group, established by Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland.  

Programme staff also work with researchers at the University of Glasgow and the programme has commissioned a PhD studentship studying women’s experiences of gambling harms.  

Getting involved  

Gambling harm is increasingly recognised in public health discourses, however there is still a lot we must do. We recognise that the type of societal change that we seek is complex and long term, therefore the programme regularly reflects on changing priorities and reacts flexibly to advances in the field.

If you have questions or would like to get involved with this programme, please email gamblingharm@alliance-scotland.org.uk or call 0141 404 0231.  

We are always keen to recruit new members to the Lived Experience Forum for Gambling Harms. Please help our work by sharing our flyer (downloadable at the bottom of the page) within your circles.  

Past Work and Resources 

Explore our policy work and consultation responses or browse the ScotRGH reports, which include our ‘Explore: mental health and gambling harms’ report, and a range of other resources. 

You can also find out more about our lived experience work on the Scottish Gambling Harm Lived Experience Forum‘s page.  

References

¹  Arnot (2018), Scottish Public Health Network gambling update

² Goodwin et al. (2017), A typical problem gambler affects six others, International Gambling Studies, 17(2), 276–289. 

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