This report is the culmination of a four-year independent research program into gambling across Great Britain, conducted between 2021 and 2025. At the turn of the decade more than 1.5 million people were at risk of gambling-related harm. Despite the scale of the challenge and the ramifications for public health and consumer harm, policymakers’ understanding of how to address it remained limited.

Understanding gambling harm requires an investigation of behaviour: the conscious and unconscious drivers behind the decision to play, how much money and time to spend on betting, and when and how to seek help.

The Gambling Policy and Research Unit (GPRU), established in 2021, is a multi-year programme designed to discover, test and scale ways to minimise gambling harm across Great Britain. Between 2021 and 2025, the GPRU ran a total of 26 research projects and 7 evidence scans. The work focused on answering three questions:

1. what influences people’s gambling decisions?
2. how can we improve support to prevent and treat gambling harms?
3. how can we create a gambling sector that operates fairly and safely for everyone?

The report summarises the approach and findings. It concludes with recommendations for policymakers, researchers and the gambling sector on how to continue developing practical, evidence-based ways to reduce gambling-related harms. 

Key findings

• Behavioural audits found that online gambling platforms are designed to maximise engagement, not to support
  informed decision-making. 
• Surveys and deliberative forums showed that consumers want proportionate protection – not a ban, but a fairer system.
• Randomised trials demonstrated that well-designed interventions, such as activity statements and clearer odds information, can shift behaviour.