GambleAware is looking to fund a research project to develop a new framework for gambling-related harm in Great Britain.
The goal of the project is to build on the previous findings from a scoping review published in July 2023 conducted on behalf of GambleAware by the National Centre for Social Research and the University of Plymouth titled ‘Frameworks and Measurement of Gambling Related Harm: A Scoping Study’.
The new research project will “address identified issues with the Problem Gambling Severity Index in the screening and assessment of harm” and “build on and adapt other frameworks that have been established in other jurisdictions and adjacent policy areas”.
GambleAware noted that the scoping study focused “on individual behaviour and overlooked a variety of socio-environmental factors which contribute to gambling-related harms, with methodologies often lacking robustness and failing to engage with people with lived experience”.
The gambling charity added: “The reliance on the PGSI and similar measures may leave some communities, particularly those who are minoritised and bear disproportionate burdens of gambling harm, underserved by having their harms less accurately established. This programme of work will address these shortcomings.”
Granting £297,900 in funds over 18 months, the new research project will establish an ongoing framework and measurement tool of gambling harms, addressing existing conflating harms and behaviours, as well as avoiding using stigmatising labels and the discrimination this causes, particularly for marginalised or minoritised communities.
GambleAware clarified that any framework should be “appropriate for assessment and outcome measurement in both clinical and non-clinical contexts, as well as for increasing understanding of gambling harms amongst wider stakeholders”.
Quantitative elements “to enable an assessment of the variation in total harms by population group, or by different economic contexts or policy regimes” must also be present within the framework.
Any work undertaken for this framework should “be mindful of and complement” the survey questions on gambling-related harms and the negative impacts of gambling currently being collected via the UK Gambling Commission’s new Gambling Survey for Great Britain, in addition to regularly engaging with the UKGC during this programme.
GambleAware expects the successful applicant/consortium to have a record of “undertaking research developing empirical tools, along with an understanding of how gambling harms are experienced and measured, with a specific focus on meaningful involvement of diverse communities and applicability to frontline practice”.
The gambling charity stated that it is therefore desirable that applicants know of psychological or psychometric scale validation and development.
Applicants are also expected to have a mixed-methods, multidisciplinary and multi-sector approach to achieve the research’s aims, as well as be from consortium and multidisciplinary teams – research agencies and/or academics and community organisations or practice bodies.
The deadline for proposal submission is 5pm on March 8.
