In 2019, the Department of Health and Social Care commissioned Public Health England (PHE) to undertake a review of the evidence on gambling harms. The review includes the most comprehensive estimate of the economic burden of gambling on society to date, revealing that the harms associated with gambling cost at least £1.27 billion in 2019 to 2020 in England alone. This analysis includes the first estimate of the economic cost of suicide (£619.2 million) and provides an updated cost of homelessness associated with harmful gambling (62.8 million).
- Local suicide audits tell us that economic exclusion, debt and gambling are risk factors for suicide across West Yorkshire.
- The new PHE public health review of gambling related harms reinforces this. PHE found evidence for a wide range of harms associated with gambling including, financial harms such as bankruptcy and homelessness, and health harms including higher mortality, suicidal events, relationship problems and family conflict.
- 3.8 per cent of the adult population (approximately 1.8 million) were found to be gambling at levels of elevated risk - a figure that has seen an increase since 2016.