The grant was awarded to a team led by the Director of IFF Social Research Agency at the University of Bristol, Kelsey Beninger, and the Head of Programmes and Marina Smith Women’s Programme at GamCare, Dominique Webb.
The objectives of the programme include exploring the reality and lived experiences of women and their engagement in gambling. A search into gambling harms and gambling treatment was undertaken, establishing and exploring the drives of such harms among women in the UK.
The project explores the services, interventions and policies needed to reduce and prevent gambling harms for women.
The research represents one part of GambleAware’s wider five-year organisational strategy, which is guided by a comprehensive vision of a society that is free from gambling-related harms.
Alison Clare, GambleAware Research Director, explained: “Women’s experiences of gambling harms are under-researched, often presented as homogenous and in terms of how they differ to men’s experiences. We are pleased to have awarded this grant to this strong multi-agency, multi-disciplinary team which will be drilling down into the experiences and needs of different communities of women.
"This is an important step towards ensuring GambleAware and others are commissioning the range of treatment and support services women want and will use. GambleAware is committed to delivering a whole-system public health approach to gambling harms and understanding the wider determinants that drive these – including gender, health, race, ethnicity, and inequalities – is fundamental to achieving this."
