GambleAware continues to bolster its research capacity, confirming that it has sanctioned a £300,000 grant to an academic consortium that will examine the ‘lived experiences of minority communities around gambling harms’. 

A consortium led by Ipsos MORI and the University of Manchester, working in collaboration with ClearView Research, won a bid to take on GambleAware’s 18-month research project – whose remit has been underlined as a key RET directive of the charity.

For the next 18-months, the consortium will examine the minority communities’ lived experience of gambling harms, including access and barriers to advice and information, support and treatment services.

Further conditions examined will focus on exploring the drivers of gambling harm amongst minority communities and to identify how intervention services can be individually modified to reduce gambling harms within those communities.

The Consortium’s final research report will be published in 2023, however, GambleAware noted that interim reports will be available earlie to help the charity plan its “wider five-year strategy that aims to achieve a society free from gambling harms for all communities.”

Dr Jay St.John Levy, Research Lead at GambleAware, said: “The experiences of minority communities around gambling are at present under-researched in Great Britain, yet evidence suggests that these groups are more likely to experience harm from gambling, and less likely to access gambling treatment services, compared with white communities.

“We are very pleased to award this grant to these two consortia who together bring considerable expertise focussing on people’s nuanced lived realities. This will help explore why these communities experience a greater burden of harm, and how to break down the barriers preventing them from accessing services.

“This research will better ensure that GambleAware and others can commission a broad range of treatment and support services that work for minority ethnic, language, and religious communities. It is, therefore, an important step towards reducing the current inequalities in gambling harms.”