Launching our new Gambling Harms Action Lab for financial services

Late last year, the Gambling Commission released data estimating that 2.5% of adults in Great Britain were experiencing ‘problem gambling’. This represents a huge number of people who are gambling to a degree that compromises, disrupts or damages their lives in some way. While this is alarming enough, behind every statistic lies a human story. In the case of individuals experiencing problem gambling, these stories are often ones of devastation, with life-changing consequences – for people’s finances, relationships and mental health.  

Solutions to gambling harms are many and varied, and, in large part, this is a job for the government to deliver on the promises of the gambling White Paper. But change takes time, and we cannot sit on our laurels while we wait. Financial services firms also have a crucial role in tackling gambling harms. That’s why this week, we’re launching our new programme – The Gambling Harms Action Lab (GHAL). Over the next three years, we’ll partner with financial services firms and those with lived experience of mental health problems and gambling to develop tools to better support for customers experiencing gambling harms.

Gambling disorder is characterised by a repeated pattern of gambling with unsuccessful attempts to stop or control it. Gambling problems can lead to serious and substantial harm, adversely impacting people’s health and finances. As the charity Gambling with Lives has highlighted, at its worst, gambling addiction can lead to loss of life through suicide.

Yet, as the statistics above show, people don’t need to be experiencing the effects of gambling to this acute degree for it to prove problematic. In 2021, our national polling found that more than four in ten (46%) people who had experienced a mental health problem in the previous 12 months had gambled more than they could afford during a period of poor mental health. 

The GHAL will build on our research and influencing work over the last eight years and the great work of GamCare and the Gambling Policy and Research Unit. We’ll explore how financial services firms can intervene to mitigate gambling harms. Our previous work in this space was instrumental in the innovation of banks introducing gambling blocks, with Monzo and Starling leading the way in 2018 before other firms followed suit. Our most recent work, in 2022 explored the crucial role of financial services.

Through the Gambling Harms Action Lab (GHAL), we will work to increase financial services firms’ confidence in tackling gambling harms, utilising transaction data for good, and testing and iterating proactive tools to intervene and disrupt the pathway to gambling harms. 

We’re focusing on financial services as they have a privileged and unique view of our lives through our financial transaction data. When a person is struggling with gambling, there are often only two organisations that know: gambling companies and their bank. Firms know our precise spending habits, disposable income, and when we’re at risk of exceeding that. When working in financial services, I was often struck by accounts that displayed repeated payments to online gambling operators, sometimes consuming entire paychecks or benefits before any payments for food or housing were made. We intend to harness this view for good here at the GHAL. 

The GHAL is funded through regulatory settlements, which occur when the Gambling Commission takes regulatory action against a gambling operator for breach of a license condition. Through this process, gambling operators make a payment towards a socially responsible project, instead of a financial penalty. This funding provides us with a unique opportunity to collaborate with a select group of up to seven financial services firms, focusing on supporting them to tackle gambling-related financial harms.

Huge progress has been made over the past eight years within financial services on the links between mental health problems and financial difficulties, but gambling harms can often be left behind in these discussions. Lots of the rhetoric around gambling seeks to individualise the problem, suggesting that most people ‘gamble responsibly’ and that gambling harms is something that happens to a small minority of people. This view ignores the social drivers and addictive nature of gambling, which can preoccupy people, drive secrecy and lead to people chasing their losses. It also obscures the role that financial services can play. 

The introduction of the Consumer Duty by the Financial Conduct Authority in July 2023 has been a game changer in our efforts to tackle gambling harms. This regulation created new rules requiring financial services to follow, intending to improve outcomes for all customers. By tackling gambling harms, firms can make strides in meeting their requirements under the Consumer Duty. 

The Gambling Harms Action Lab’s launch is timely. It occurs in the week the Gambling Commission is set to release its first Annual Report of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain on the prevalence of gambling and the month of the first anniversary of the introduction of the Consumer Duty. We’re inviting financial services firms to seize this moment to partner with us in this crucial and timely work. If you work for a financial services firm and are interested in partnering with the GHAL, please contact us here. 

If you have lived experience of gambling harms, either personally or as an affected other and are interested in sharing your insights and experiences, please join our Research Community here. If you are experiencing difficulties with gambling, you can find sources of support on our ‘get help’ page here.