New Lancaster University project aims to find out more about people addicted to gambling

Researchers from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) and Psychology Department have joined forces with Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust; Delphi Medical, a leading provider of drug and alcohol addiction treatment in the Northwest; and Blackburn foodbank, to embark on a new project which will assess the prevalence of problem gambling across the region.

There are up to 460,000 people in the UK who are likely to be problem gamblers, with a further 3.8% at risk of developing problem gambling, according to the latest Government figures.

Problem gambling is also estimated by Government to cost the UK £1.27 billion per year in associated costs - but as an issue that doesn’t cause individuals to present with physical symptoms, it often goes undetected.

To identify the number of individuals affected by the problem, and to help direct those individuals towards the right help and specialist support organisations, researchers are evaluating a short set of questions for medical professionals to use when assessing patient.

The questions will now be used in a pilot study as part of general patient screening across the South Cumbria and Lancashire NHS Trust, in a bid to see how many individuals it affects across Blackpool and Blackburn and direct them to much-needed support. The same questions will also be asked of those who use Blackburn foodbank and anyone who seeks help from Delphi Medical.

Dr Carolyn Downs from Lancaster University Management School, who is the leading the project, said: “We know, anecdotally, that problem gambling may be a more serious and prevalent issue than the latest official figures, released in Spring 2022, suggest.

“Clinicians tell us that problem gambling is a growing issue across our region and is increasingly seen as a trigger for mental health as well as financial crises – but unlike drug and alcohol addiction, current NHS systems are not set up to capture data on problem gambling.”

Dr Downs says the project, which is funded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Sciences Research Council) Impact Acceleration Fund, aims to provide the NHS with a simple system to more accurately assess the prevalence of problem gambling – and hopes this will help the region attract additional funding in future to tackle the problem.