A new UK-wide research centre funded through the government’s Gambling Levy will lead independent research into gambling harms, with the aim of improving prevention, treatment and public policy.
The Gambling Harms Research UK (GHR-UK) Evidence Centre, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will coordinate research into the social, economic and health impacts of harmful gambling, which is estimated to cost the UK economy around £1.4 billion annually.
The figure, calculated by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), includes pressures on healthcare and criminal justice systems, alongside wider personal impacts such as depression and suicide.
The centre will work with government departments, health agencies, charities, researchers and people with lived experience of gambling harms to develop what organisers describe as an independent and evidence-led approach to research.
Led by the Universities of Glasgow, Sheffield, Swansea and King’s College London, the centre will oversee a national research programme on gambling harms, build research capacity, collaborate with stakeholders and explore how UKRI and other data assets can be used to generate new evidence. It will also coordinate 19 GHR-UK Innovation Partnerships based at universities across the UK.
The Gambling Levy allocates funding across treatment, prevention and research. UKRI and the Gambling Commission are jointly responsible for investing 20% of levy funding into research, amounting to £22.1 million for 2025-26.
Current investments include 32 rapid evidence reviews, the establishment of the new Evidence Centre, 19 Innovation Partnerships and four UKRI policy fellows.
Professor Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, said: “Gambling harms can have devastating consequences for individuals, families and communities. This new independent Evidence Centre is a major step in building the high-quality research base needed to inform better policy, prevention and treatment across the UK.
“Through the Gambling Levy, UKRI is helping to establish a long-term, credible and independent research capability on gambling harms, grounded in research integrity and public value.”
Future research funded through the programme will include studies into the convergence of gambling and video gaming.
The centre said people with lived and living experience of gambling harms would play a central role in shaping its work, helping ensure research informs prevention and treatment initiatives funded through the levy.
Professor Heather Wardle, Professor of Gambling Research and Policy at the University of Glasgow and lead of the centre, said: “We’re proud to lead UKRI’s first ever Gambling Harms Research Evidence Centre. For too long, gambling research has been under-resourced and overlooked. New funding through the Levy and UKRI marks a vital reset, strengthening the quality and scale of gambling harms research and ensuring policy is driven by rigorous, independent evidence.
“Putting lived experience at the heart of our work, we look forward to collaborating widely to deepen understanding of and reduce the serious harms associated with gambling.”
The centre has appointed Martin Jones as its lived experience lead. Jones has personal experience of gambling-related harm and has worked with research, education and treatment organisations.
He said: “Research isn’t an intellectual exercise sitting in isolation, it is and should be closely linked to real gambling harms affecting real people, as many of us know all too well.
“We need to do much more to prevent these harms, and coordinating top quality research will support this, especially by exploring the more complex areas around suicide, algorithms, and financial data.”
The 19 Innovation Partnerships coordinated by the centre will examine topics including gambling harms in sport, gambling in online environments and videogames, and the structural drivers of gambling harm.
Together, the partnerships and the Evidence Centre will form the wider GHR-UK network, aimed at generating evidence, informing policy and training the next generation of gambling harms researchers.
UKRI said the centre’s independence from commercial gambling interests would be protected through governance and integrity measures designed to prevent external influence.
The organisation described the centre as the UK’s first gambling harms research centre operating without industry involvement.
