GambleAware donates £4m to help fund problem gambling research in Great Britain

British charity GambleAware has stepped up its safer gambling drive by announcing it will help fund the country’s first academic research hub specialising at dealing with problem gambling.

The problem gambling charity is to award £4m ($5.52m) to a single academic institution which will specialise in gambling harms research. The donation forms part of GambleAware’s commitment to diversify the ability to research into the field of gambling harms in Great Britain (GB).

The eight-month grant award process will aim to improve and form new disciplines into problemgambling research, which will look to boost GB’s international profile. It is hoped that the Academic Research Hub will build on the charity’s ambition for the country to better deal with problem gambling and it is expected the successful institution will secure alternative funding beyond the initial grant to further aid growth.

Several select universities have been invited to apply for the grant based on a number of ranking systems.

GambleAware Research Director Alison Clare said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for a British university to develop and innovate in a relatively under-researched field, bringing to bear a much wider range of academic disciplines than are currently engaged in gambling harms research."

"With this significant investment, a British university and its partners will have the chance to create a step change in building knowledge in an area which links and overlaps with many other subjects and fields."

The charity also announced the return of its safergamblingcampaign Bet Regret, for the start of the 2021/22 English Premier League season. The campaign will feature on television, radio and digital platforms, while also appearing inside and outside football stadiums.

The message of the campaign is to encourage football fans, mainly aged between 18 and 34, to take on the notion of betting in moderation and to avoid making impulsive bets by ‘tapping out’ before so.

The ‘tap out’ campaign was first launched in September 2020, with the ‘tapping-out for time out’ concept consisting of adverts featuring wrestlers making unsuspecting gamblers about to place an ill-considered bet, tap out to avoid ‘Bet Regret’.

The charity said to date the initiative has proved successful with 38% of the target audience admitting they try to ‘tap out’ of their app before placing a bet, with 17% saying they use the technique to cut down on their betting.

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