GambleAware expands data sharing with treatment records

The UK responsible gambling charity has made its records on the treatment and support of gambling harm in 2019 and 2020 available through the Consumer Data Research Centre.

UK.- GambleAware has expanded its data sharing on problem gambling treatment and support, opening access to its 2019 and 2020 data records through the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC).

GambleAware said it was making the data available to the research community to promote a policy of open data and to expand the range of academic stakeholders studying the impact of gambling harms. GambleAware’s Annual Treatment & Support surveys will also now be shared through the CDRC’s online catalogue.

These YouGov-researched surveys provide a breakdown of participants using treatment and support services, with insights on participation, demographics and facilitators and barriers to accessing treatment.   

GambleAware’s interim research director Alison Clare said: “We are pleased that this rich data set is now freely available to academics and researchers across GB and elsewhere in the world.

“GambleAware currently uses only a small proportion of this data in our Annual GB Treatment & Support report and GB maps showing gambling harms prevalence and treatment demand at ward level.  

“There is so much more that researchers from a range of disciplines could do with it through secondary analysis and investigation. Longer-term, we hope that the catalogue of data sets held by the CDRC in this field will grow, with others’ also making their data openly available to the wider field.”

The CDRC is the UK’s biggest source of consumer data and forms part of the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC’s) Big Data Programme. 

Centre technical manager Oliver O’Brien said: “We are delighted to announce a new partnership with GambleAware. As part of this new collaboration, the CDRC has made available the fully anonymised response data from the GambleAware Treatment and Support Survey.

“The survey provides a unique look at a detailed examination of gambling participation, harms and support in Great Britain. Alongside access to the data, trusted researchers will also receive associated metadata which they can use towards their research project.”