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Britain's oldest independent economic research institute estimates the total cost of harms associated with problem gambling in the UK is £1.4bn per year.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a charity, unveiled the figure in its latest report, but said it considers this figure to be an underestimate due to a lack of data on the costs to affected others or of suicide linked to problem gambling.
The research estimates that the average cost per person experiencing problem gambling is approximately £3,700 per year more than those who are only at risk of experiencing harm.
The figures are based on NIESR estimates that people experiencing gambling harm are more likely to require public services, such as being nine times more likely to require hospital treatment and being four times more likely to require homelessness support.
Following the findings, the NIESR called on three key “reforms”, including acknowledging the fiscal costs of problem gambling when determining the contents of the long-awaited gambling act white paper.
It also calls for the inclusion of clear screening diagnostics for people experiencing problem gambling in the next rounds of the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) and the updating of its fiscal estimates once the 2022 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) data becomes available.
The WAS survey measures the well-being of households and individuals in the UK, in terms of their assets, savings, debt and planning for retirement.
The APMS, also known as the National Study of Health and Wellbeing, runs every seven years and aims to find out how everyday stresses, strains and joys affect the health of people living in England.
Lastly, NIESR said it wants large-scale data collection to be “part of the remit of the Gambling Commission, especially in relation to the association between problem gambling and ‘affected others’ and between problem gambling and suicide”.
The NIESR’s estimate is based on the number of people experiencing problem gambling being 0.7 percent of the total population of 16 years and older living in private accommodation, which corresponds to about 380,000 people.
“Our research finds that the fiscal cost per person experiencing problem gambling is approximately £3,700 per year compared with people experiencing ‘at-risk’ gambling. The bulk of the fiscal cost relates to higher welfare support, in addition to increased healthcare, criminal justice costs and the costs of homelessness,” the NIESR said.
An estimate by Public Health England (PHE) published in September 2021 explored the social and economic costs of at-risk and problem gambling, putting the cost between £841m and £2.12bn per year.
However, following an evidence update published in January 2023, the report now estimates the annual excess direct financial cost to the government associated with harmful gambling is equivalent to £412.9m and that together with the annual societal value of health the combined estimate is approximately £1.05bn to £1.77bn.
“One of the reasons why these reports produce such vast ranges relates to the confidence in precision of our estimates of problem gambling,” according to the NIESR.
The project was announced in February 2022 and was funded by regulatory settlements gathered by the Gambling Commission.
