Scottish Gambling Harm Lived Experience Forum

The forum sits within the ALLIANCE’s Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme,  which aims to put the voice of people affected by gambling harms at the heart of action to reduce those harms.  

‘Gambling harms’ describe a wide range of diverse negative impacts from gambling on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities and society. We believe that people’s voices, expertise, and rights should drive policy and the design, delivery and improvement of support and services. We work together for gambling harm to be recognised in Scotland’s public health framework.  

If you’re interested in joining the Forum or know someone who might be, follow the sign-up instructions or share our flyer (downloadable at the bottom of this page) within your circles.

What are gambling harms?

Gambling-related harms are harms caused by gambling. This includes financial, employment, and relationship issues, physical and mental health problems, criminal activity, and in the most severe cases suicide as a direct result of gambling harm.    

People can experience gambling harm to different degrees, and we are interested in speaking to anyone who feels they have experienced harm as result of their own, or a loved one’s gambling.  

Our work  

The Forum helps to identify key areas of importance in reducing gambling harms in Scotland and provide their expertise to contribute to meaningful change. Forum members commit to attending regular, evening meetings every six weeks for one hour and a half. They have opportunities to shape action to reduce gambling harm in Scotland, as well as network and build relationships with others.  

Previous activities include: 

• planning and attending events like roundtable discussions with invited experts 
• responding to consultations on gambling regulation by the Government 
• Members sharing their stories: see the ‘Humans of Scotland – Gambling Harm’ edition 
• Publishing reports on specific priorities such as the ‘Mental Health and Gambling Harm’ report  

Our X page @ScotRGH is regularly updated with work the forum is involved in.  

“People don’t understand it. Mental health and addiction go hand in hand.  It should be a public health issue. It should be about protecting our children and grandchildren. It should stop seeing the broken as people with ‘illness’ but recognise the cause of this misery as resting with the unregulated supply of addictive products.” 

Person with experience of gambling harm

Lived experience work at the ALLIANCE

The Forum aligns with an organisation-wide commitment to champion lived experience. Discover the range of programmes that involve and promote people with lived experience, or explore ALLIANCE’s Knowledge Hub, a library of resources and guides that can help organisations to work with people with lived experience meaningfully.

Getting involved  

The Forum is open to new members wishing to join. 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. 

Additionally, you can fill out our sign-up survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/gamblingharmforum/

We also welcome individual participation in the Lived Experience Forum (not full membership). Interested individuals should get in touch to discuss how they could contribute and what level of engagement they would be comfortable with. 

Past work 

Some of the Forum’s work has been highlighted at the bottom of this page. This includes our publication ‘People with lived experience share their stories of gambling harm’ as part of the Humans of Scotland series. See also the programme’s policy work and consultation responses and the ScotRGH reports.

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