Our work is policy-relevant, and we strive to ensure that our findings are heard by policymakers across the world. A few recent examples of our team’s engagement with policymakers can be found below.

Words Matter: A Language Guide for respectful reporting on gambling

In 2024, Dr Blair Biggar and Prof Heather Wardle led workshops with people with lived experience of gambling harms to produce a short, accessible guide for intended key stakeholders who have a public platform for discussing gambling and gambling harms.

Gambling, Prevention and the Statutory Levy

In February 2024, Prof Wardle, Dr Bunn and Prof Reith conducted a series of workshops with public health-related stakeholders to explore their perspectives on how gambling harm prevention can be pursued most effectively in the context of the forthcoming Statutory Levy. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport funded the Glasgow team to prepare, facilitate and report on findings from these workshops. The report linked below summarises the main themes which emerged from these workshops. The views represented in this report are those of the report authors. They do not represent the views of DCMS nor reflect the government’s policy position.

Developing survey questions capturing gambling-related harms to self and others

This review on developing survey questions capturing gambling-related harms to self and others is part of GRG’s ongoing work with NatCen Social Research for the Gambling Commission to update and improve how data on gambling behaviour in Britain is collected.

The review was produced by Dr Heather Wardle and Dr Viktorija Kesaite at GRG in collaboration with international colleagues Prof Robert Williams and Dr Rachel Volberg.

 

Response to the Gambling Act Review

This report was submitted by the GRG Team outlining and evidencing our belief that the Gambling Act Review should look to the available evidence to recognise that the current extent of harms associated with different gambling products have been under-estimated, that a prevention strategy is needed which takes population-level action to protect people from harms and that independent funding is secured to underpin and support these actions.

Gambling and the Red Wall: traditional pastime or modern menace? A Policy Briefing Note

The Social Market Foundation hosted a panel event at the Conservative Party Conference on October 4th, 2021. Dr Heather Wardle from the University of Glasgow, and member of Gambling Research Glasgow was invited to discuss the evidence relating to the relationship between area deprivation and gambling harms. This briefing note supports her contribution at that event.

GRG Research features in letter from Gambling Related Harm APPG to DCMS

Dr Heather Wardle’s work on the ongoing convergence of online gambling and gaming features in a letter to The Rt Hon John Whittingdale MP, Minister for Media and Data from the chairs of the Gambling Related Harm APPG and Peers for Gambling Reform. In the letter, Dr Wardle draws attention to the “coercive and controlling” nature of loot boxes, drawing on research published in her recent book Games Without Frontiers?, which is available to read open access here.

Submission to the House of Lords

Submitted on 6 September 2019 this was the contribution of Dr Heather Wardle, Professor Gerda Reith, Professor Robert D Rogers, and Erika Langham to the House of Lords Select Committee Inquiry on the Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry.