Recommendation 27

HM Government Accepted

We recognise that harmful gambling can wreck lives, impact families and communities, and even lead to suicide in extreme cases. The package of measures outlined in the gambling white paper will significantly increase protections with the aim of preventing harm. As part of the government’s Suicide Prevention Strategy Action Plan, there is a wide range of activity which the government and the Gambling Commission are taking forward to continue to develop our understanding of gambling-related harm. The Department for Health and Social Care, and the Gambling Commission are strengthening informational messaging, including on risks associated with gambling. Replacing industry ownership, this will consider information at the point of purchase and messages within advertising, and identify what messaging works for different contexts and audiences. As discussed above, the statutory levy will provide for increased investment in high-quality, independent research on gambling and gambling-related harm, which could include further studies on the relationship between gambling and suicide. The levy presents a crucial opportunity for both the government and the Gambling Commission to develop our understanding in this area and ensure the best available evidence is continually informing policy and regulation. The Gambling Commission has approved funding through regulatory settlements to Greo1 for a programme of research into gambling and death by suicide which is intended to support and inform the work of a range of partners and stakeholders. It is important that wider research such as these examples are not conflated with the newly strengthened requirement on all gambling operators to notify the Gambling Commission if it knows or suspects that a person who has gambled with it has died by suicide, whether or not such suicide is known or suspected to be associated with gambling. The requirement, which came into force on 1 April 2024, will enable the Gambling Commission to assess whether regulatory intervention is required and help to inform its ongoing consideration of policy. The Gambling Commission does not and cannot use the information provided by gambling businesses to measure deaths by suicide associated with gambling or act as a proxy for such figures. This is because gambling operators will not always be aware when a person who has gambled with them has died by suicide and so the reported figures may not be complete, and also because the figures will not be able to tell us which deaths by suicide were associated with the customer’s gambling, which is a highly complex assessment beyond the remit of gambling businesses and the Gambling Commission.