UK think tank calls for creation of national gambling database
The SMF says gambling should be treated as a public health issue with mandated local strategies and questions in standard patient assessments.
UK.- An influential think tank has made fresh proposals urging the UK to treat problem gambling as a public health issue. The Social Market Foundation (SMF) has published the proposal shortly after calling for a tax hike on Category B slot machines. The body was previously influential in proposing the rise in Remote Gaming Tax introduced in April.
The SMF’s latest proposal is for gambling harms to be addressed in a similar way to alcohol misuse, drug addiction, and tobacco consumption. That would include central and local government embedding gambling-related questions into standard patient assessments to help medical staff to spot warning signs before problems escalate.
The think tank contends that current services are currently largely reactive, leaving frontline staff without the tools to identify risks early. Challenges include siloed rather than integrated support, variation between local public health strategies, patchy information sharing and a lack of inclusion of gambling in long-term planning, it says.
It proposes that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care ensure adequate and accessible gambling treatment capacity nationwide and that Councils be legally mandated to address gambling-related harm in their public health policies, as they are required to do for alcohol-related harm, substance misuse and smoking cessation.
It’s also called for the creation of a national gambling database to gather data from all Integrated Care Boards on the current state of gambling harms and to monitor treatment pathways.
An ongoing debate on gambling as a public health concern
There has been previous debate over whether gambling should be formally recognised as a public health concern in the UK. Last year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued new guidance recommending that general practitioners (GPs) ask their patients about gambling harms.
While only 2.7 per cent of UK adults are classified as problem gamblers, the SMF insists prevention is vital to keeping that figure as low as possible. It’s pointed to international examples, such as the case of New Zealand, where the Ministry of Health’s national gambling harm strategy has integrated screening and intervention into everyday healthcare since 2023, and Norway, where a four-year plan includes roles for bank staff and family counsellors.
“There has been a gradual shift to viewing gambling-associated harms through a public health lens, but this approach is much less common than with other similar issues, such as alcohol or drug-related harms,” it says. “On a national level, progress has been slow. Locally, some local government public health teams have taken it on directly, but approaches differ across the country.”
“Frontline services across health and the third sector can play an important role in identifying gambling harms and supporting those experiencing them. However, the systems and processes of these services do not always enable the identification of harms, which means opportunities to identify gambling-related harm are missed. Other barriers included a knowledge-action gap, lack of expertise, and long waiting lists creating pressure on services.”
