By Dr Selma Iilonga, Dr Albert Shikongo, and Ms. Jacobina Mwiiyale, University of Namibia.

This blog describes a research project made possible by a Strategic Award from the Hub’s Research Innovation Fund. The Strategic Award is an annual competition that funds innovative and interdisciplinary research to understand and tackle gambling harms.

Namibia has seen exponential growth in gambling among the population, with regular high-profile media stories that celebrate large wins from sports betting. However, we know very little about how gambling impacts individuals and communities or how best to protect people from gambling harms. This groundbreaking interdisciplinary research project was the first empirical study on gambling in Namibia. Its main aim was to investigate how the dissemination of gambling information impacts consumer behaviour and to design a mitigating model to address harmful gambling. We conducted field work in Feb-May 2024 in betting/gambling houses in four regions of Namibia (Erongo, Khomas, Oshana, and Zambezi) and collected data from people who gambled using survey questionnaires (1,598 responses) and 60 semi-structured interviews. We also conducted covert observation in around 60 betting/gambling houses.

What we learned:

• People who gamble in Namibia are more likely to be young and male: Our survey showed that young Namibians were most likely to be involved in gambling activities, with 19% of those aged 15-24 and 47% of people aged between 25 and 34 years actively gambling. More men (69%) than women (31%) were participating in gambling activities.
• Word-of-mouth plays a key role in people’s exposure to gambling: The highest proportion of our survey participants (40%) were exposed to gambling through word of mouth. Other sources included gambling adverts (15%), billboards (14%) and WhatsApp or other forms of social media (13%).
• Money is a strong motivator for gambling: Around half of our survey participants (48%) said they gambled to win money. Other reasons included for fun/entertainment (16%), for competition and skills (9%), to kill boredom (8%), social interaction (8%), stress relief (5%), having more money to spend (3%), and because they cannot stop (2%).

Based on the research, we recommended a range of strategies for mitigating gambling harms in Namibia, including the introduction of live counselling TV and local radio programmes providing gambling education, including testimonies from people who have experienced gambling harms; educational tailor-made gambling information literacy programs for all ages; and amendments to the current gambling act to regulate gambling advertisements.

The implementation of these strategies requires collaboration between stakeholders and change agents. We therefore hosted a workshop for policymakers and other stakeholders in July 2024 to discuss the research findings and recommendations. We were delighted that the workshop was attended by 70 expert participants including public health researchers, local council members, social workers, experts from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Gambling Division (the regulating body of gambling activities in Namibia) and Mr John Erastus, CEO of the Gambling Board of Namibia. Participants expressed strong support for the study to be rolled out across Namibia; and for improved consumer protection, including greater availability of gambling treatment centres, changes to gambling licensing, and better monitoring of gambling and betting outlets to prevent underage participation in gambling activities. Further information about the policy workshop is provided in this blog. You can also watch a YouTube video of Dr Iilonga’s presentation of the research at the Hub’s 2024 Colloquium.

About the project team: The project was conducted by the University of Namibia, led by Dr Selma Iilonga (Library and Information Services Unit), with Co-Investigators Dr Albert Shikongo (Department of Computing, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences) and Ms. Jacobina Mwiiyale, (Library and Information Services Unit).

By Dr Oluwole Adeniyi and Professor Andy Newton (Nottingham Trent University), Dr Ferhat Tura and Professor John McAlaney (Bournemouth University)

This blog describes a research project made possible by a Strategic Award from the Hub’s Research Innovation Fund. The Strategic Award funds innovative and interdisciplinary research to understand and tackle gambling harms. 

This project investigated the relationship between betting shops and crime in seven cities in England (Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield) and two Police Force Areas (Dorset and Surrey). We conducted spatial and multilevel analysis on data obtained from the Gambling Commission’s register of licensed gambling premises, police-recorded crime data, UK Census, point of interest data from the Ordinance Survey and access to health assets and Hazards (AHAH) from Consumer Data Research Centre across three time points (2015, 2019 and 2022). This project builds on our previous study that found a relationship between betting shops and crime at a national level in England, by exploring whether similar relationships exist at sub-national geographies.

Key Finding #1: There is a relationship between betting shops and crime at the level of cities and Police Force Areas in England. Our cluster analysis (which organises items into groups, or clusters, based on how closely associated they are) provides evidence of co-location in the patterns of betting shops and overall crime across similar neighbourhoods in our seven cities, with strong evidence in Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool and Bristol compared to Nottingham and Newcastle.

Furthermore, we used a multilevel model (designed for data where units like neighbourhoods are grouped or clustered within larger units like cities and PFAs) to explore the relationship between betting shops and anti-social behaviour, burglary, bike theft, drugs, public disorder, shoplifting and theft from the person, while controlling for the resident populations and year. We found a significant positive relationship between betting shops and all the crime categories across the seven cities.

In the two PFAs, Dorset showed evidence of co-location of betting shops and overall crime, but Surrey did not. Like the cities, our multi-level models found a positive association between betting shops and all crime types in both PFAs.

It is important to note that our analysis does not show that having betting shops in cities or PFAs causes crime. Rather, our focus is on the co-location of crime with betting shops, and our analysis shows that betting shops are places around which crime occurs.

Key finding #2: The relationship between betting shops and crime is impacted by neighbourhood characteristics, but there are key differences between cities and PFAs. Delving into the data in more detail, we conducted multilevel modelling that controlled for a range of neighbourhood characteristics such as education deprivation, access to healthy assets and hazards, occupation, housing tenure and point of interest data (e.g. bus stops and food and drink places).

This showed that the relationship between betting shops and crime is impacted by neighbourhood characteristics, but there are differences across the cities and PFAs. For instance, the presence of betting shops increases the likelihood of at least one type of crime in Birmingham (ASB and shoplifting), Bristol (all crimes, anti-social behaviour, public disorder and burglary), Liverpool (ASB, public disorder, shoplifting and burglary), Newcastle (shoplifting) and Nottingham (all crime, ASB and shoplifting). On the contrary, there is no relationship between betting shops and crime in Leeds, whereas, in Sheffield, a negative relationship is observed between number of betting shops and bicycle theft. Across the cities and PFAs, the crimes with the greatest association with betting shops were ASB and shoplifting.

We also identified some key correlates of crime. Factors such as higher numbers of private and social renters, food and drink shops as well as bus stops in a neighbourhood further exacerbate the relationship between betting shops and crime. Based on other academic literature, these attributes suggest high residential mobility, low collective efficacy, high population density and high footfall associated with structural and concentrated disadvantages. The concentration of these risk factors of crime together with betting shops will further increase the level of disorganisation and riskiness, which serve as catalysts for crime occurrence.

Potential impacts
This study provides a nuanced picture of the relationship between betting shops and crime across different geographies in England. The results highlight that – irrespective of the similarities in the relationship between betting shops and the different crime types – there are clear differences with cities and PFAs. This emphasises the importance of local policies to tackle the negative impacts of provisioning of gambling activities; and the importance of local councils having sufficient powers to develop tailored approaches that work in their neighbourhoods and for their communities.

About the project team: The project was led by Dr Oluwole Adeniyi, Nottingham Trent University (Nottingham Business School) working with Dr Ferhat Tura, Bournemouth University (Department of Social Sciences and Social Work), Prof Andy Newton, Nottingham Trent University (Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice) and Prof John McAlaney, Bournemouth University (Department of Psychology).

by Dr Tom Bason (Coventry University), Francesca Howard (Fast Forward), Wendy Knight (Early Knights Ltd)

This blog describes a small-scale exploratory research project that tested how to raise awareness about gambling harms among young people and adults living in deprived areas of Scotland.  We used classroom-based activities and Family Fun Days. It was funded by a Research Innovation Fund Seedcorn Grant from the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research. The Seedcorn Grant scheme is for early-stage research projects to test ideas, generate new insights and build working relationships with external partners, from which larger-scale impactful projects can be developed.

The issue of gambling-related harms is increasingly concerning, particularly in Scotland, where treatment services lag behind the rest of the UK. This project explored different ways of engaging local communities in deprived areas to raise awareness of gambling harms and services that can support people who are impacted by them. We tested two activities:

Classroom Activities: Our partner Fast Forward – a charity that promotes young people’s health and wellbeing through education and training – conducted classroom-based activities with 12–14-year-olds in two schools that serve catchment areas ranked among the most deprived in Scotland. Students watched Fast Forward’s ‘Trust Me’ movie a week prior to a workshop in which Fast Forward staff led discussions on topics like gambling advertising, reducing gambling risks, the impact on others, and available support services. Around 110 students participated in these discussions. Following this, the students created sports shirt designs with positive messages about preventing gambling harms, resulting in 123 submissions – examples of which are shown below. The idea was for students to think about alternative messages to the gambling operator logos seen on the shirts of professional sports players. Some of the students’ designs were printed on T-shirts that were distributed at the Family Fun Days.

Community Events: We ran two Family Fun Days at the same schools, using rounders games to draw in local communities, followed by indoor workshops on gambling harms that were facilitated by Fast Forward. This approach integrated the educational component into the day’s activities, with the aim of making the workshop feel like a natural continuation of the fun rather than a separate, formal session. Food from local vendors was freely available at both events, which was an important part of engaging participants and provided an opportunity to tell local food vendors about the project. The RCA Trust – part of the National Gambling Support Network  – were also on hand to provide professional help if it was needed.

In total, 24 people attended the community events, including students from the schools, their family members, teachers and local politicians. As well as testing how community sports activities can be used to raise awareness about gambling harms, some adults from the local community engaged directly with Fast Forward staff about their own gambling issues.  The events also facilitated valuable conversations between project team members and local politicians about the issues facing local communities, such as the presence of betting shops on high streets in more deprived areas.

T-shirts featuring designs by the students were distributed at the Family Fun Days and worn by the rounders players and other attendees. These shirts, worn by school , sparked additional conversations about gambling harms. For example, a chance conversation at the gym with a mental health nurse – prompted by one of the shirts – resulted in Fast Forward delivering a gambling harm train session to local mental health workers. Materials, including posters designed by students, were left with the schools to display both the work and messages about gambling harms.

What we learned: Through this seedcorn project, we achieved our primary aim of showing how community-based sports-themed activities can be a hook to engage young people and the wider community to explore gambling and gambling harms. The project demonstrated the value of bringing together Fast Forward’s expertise of engaging young people in discussions around sensitive topics (e.g. using video as a medium to open up conversations) with Wendy Knight’s lived experience of gambling harms. We learned the importance of having resources to offer schools and students (such as T-shirts and posters) to encourage engagement; and needing to find times for the class-based activities that worked for the schools, given how far in advance they have to plan. The project also highlighted some of the practical challenges of conducting research with young people under 18, such as getting parental consent to participate in research and having a Plan B to sensitively deal with situations where some young people have got parental consent and others do not.

About the project team: The project was led by Coventry University, working with Fast Forward and Early Knights Ltd. The project team comprised Dr Tom Bason, Associate Professor, Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University; Francesca Howard, Programme Manager, Scottish Gambling Education Hub, Fast Forward; and Wendy Knight, Director of Early Knights Ltd.

by Dr Emily Arden-Close (Bournemouth University)

This blog describes a small-scale exploratory research project to better understand the barriers and challenges faced by women from minority ethnic groups in accessing gambling harms treatment and support, and potential ways to overcome them. It was funded by a Research Innovation Fund Seedcorn Grant from the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research. The Seedcorn Grant scheme is for early-stage research projects to test ideas, generate new insights and build working relationships with external partners, from which larger-scale impactful projects can be developed.

Women from minority ethnic communities are under-represented in gambling addiction treatment services in Britain, although prevalence of gambling harm may be higher in these communities than in the general population. This project comprised: (1) A co-design study with women from minority ethnic groups who had received treatment for gambling-related harms to explore barriers to access and ways to overcome them; and (2) testing community-based Family Fun Days as a way to start conversations with women from minority ethnic groups about gambling and gambling harms.

Co-design study: We conducted qualitative research with 10 women from minority ethnic communities who had received treatment for gambling-related harms. Wendy Knight from Early Knights Ltd, who is from an ethnic minority background and has lived experience of gambling harms facilitated the group discussions, which helped put our participants at ease.  Our discussions highlighted how belonging to a close-knit community could be a barrier to seeking help, due to fears about how their community might respond to any disclosure of gambling problems and to feeling embarrassed. However, the women described how once they had talked to their social support network about their gambling, an empathetic and understanding response facilitated them getting help. They also talked about ways to raise awareness of the support that’s available, as they themselves had not known where to turn. In particular, they felt that advertising via social media – using content that is inclusively designed to reflect different socio-demographics – would enable gambling support services to reach a much wider audience. They felt that gambling treatment and support providers need to make sure that they use inclusive imagery and language on their websites and other content, otherwise people may think that services are not for them.

Family Fun Days: We held two Family Fun Days in public parks in Walsall and Sandwell, West Midlands. These are areas with a high proportion of residents from minority ethnic communities, which are also local to Gordon Moody’s gambling harms treatment and support services. We wanted to test if Family Fun Days, centred around community rounders matches, might be an effective way to raise awareness of gambling-related harms among women from minority ethnic communities. The events were advertised in public places locally and to schools. Rounders was facilitated through Rounders England in conjunction with Early Knights Ltd and t-shirts with the participating organisations’ logos provided to participants. Gordon Moody representatives attended to provide information about the service. Food was provided and an interactive talk on gambling-related harms was delivered by Red Card Gambling Support.

While both events ran smoothly, we had fewer participants than we expected. In particular, the Family Fun Days did not seem to be especially effective in engaging women from minority ethnic communities. We were, however, successful in engaging with men from the local community who were playing cricket in the parks, who chatted with the team and listened to Red Card’s talk about gambling-related harm.

What we learned:

• The co-design study showed that a lack of inclusive imagery and content on the websites (and other content) of treatment and support providers may be putting women from minority ethnic groups off seeking help. As a result of this learning, our project partner Gordon Moody is using the findings to make its website, advertising strategy and treatment more inclusive and attractive to a wider range of socio-demographic groups, including women from minority ethnic groups.
• We were able to further validate the value of co-designed projects. Working with a lived experience facilitator for the group discussions helped put participants at ease. Two people with lived experience also provided helpful feedback on our research findings.
• Our experience of testing Family Fun Days in public parks showed this may not be an effective way to engage women from minority ethnic groups in conversations about gambling and gambling harms. Future work could usefully explore what spaces women are comfortable accessing and potentially discussing these types of issues. Offering information and support about gambling-related harms at established community-based outdoor activities, such as Park Runs, could also be tested.
• The Family Fun Days highlighted the importance of fostering contacts, networks and relationships with local communities, community leaders and other stakeholders (such as local councils and universities) in order to co-design and deliver such events so they attract a larger and more diverse audience.

About the project team: The project was led by Bournemouth University, working with Gordon Moody, Early Knights Ltd and Red Card Gambling. The project team comprised Dr Emily Arden-Close, Bournemouth University; Dr Rosalind Baker-Frampton (Gordon Moody); Wendy Knight, Director of Early Knights Ltd.; and Tony Kelly (Red Card Gambling).