Study suggests gambling harm eight times worse than previously thought

The scale of harm done by gambling in Britain may be eight times higher than thought, according to the largest survey into the impact of the industry, piling pressure on ministers to enact promised reforms to the gambling industry.

- Emily Dugan , Pippa Crerar

An estimated 2.5% of British adults have struggled with "problem gambling", according to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) which questioned almost 10,000 people. This would equate to 1.3 million problem gamblers, though the report's authors cautioned there was a risk the data could be an overestimate.

Previous surveys, conducted by phone, had put the problem gambling figure as low as 0.3%. It was acknowledged at the time this was likely to be an underestimate.

The latest research found that, among those who had gambled in the last year, more than one in 40 experienced a severe harm to their life, such as turning to crime to finance gambling, experiencing a relationship breakdown, or losing a home.

More than one in 20 of those aged 18-34 who had gambled in the previous 12 months reported a severe impact on their life. Among men, 1.9% experienced a relationship breakdown, 1.9% lost something of significant value, such as a home, business or car, and 1.6% experienced violence.

More than one in 10 of those who responded to the survey said they had considered suicide and, of these, 4.9% said this was related to their gambling either a little or a lot.