UK Gambling Commission Tabs GREO for Problem Gambling Research
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has joined forces with another third-party agency for its ever-expanding role in limiting the social impact of problem and addictive gambling. This week, the UK Gambling Commissio has announced its partnership with the Canada-based Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO) with regard to some of the UKGC’s problem-gambling initiatives.
GREO is being brought as a primary research and results-dissemination specialist for one of the Gambling Commission’s more recently announced projects, the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms. According to a statement from the UKGC, “GREO will develop a programme of activity to support the new strategy’s two priority areas – Prevention and Education, and Treatment and Support, and will focus on the dissemination of research, applying research to policy and international collaboration.”
Funding for GREO’s research-driven role will come the Gambling Commission’s ongoing regulatory settlements, which have amounted to a couple of tens of millions of pounds in recent years. Only a small portion of that settlement money will go to fund GREO’s work.
GREO’s widespread work includes strong focus on how addictive gambling can impact the larger public. Among many other tools and resource, GREO recently released a visually-oriented Gambling Harms Map that helps define many of the socio-economic factors that can eventually magnify the effects of gambling addiction. As with most of GREO’s other work, it goes well beyond what many other so-called gambling research entities provide.
For instance, GREO is one of the few organizations whose work stretches beyond simple demographic breakdowns and other basic, artificial categories. As an example of its widespread research, GREO recently released some interesting findings on comorbid mental health disorders, or comorbidities, that show high affinity with eventual problem-gambling behavior.
GREO will also participate in the United States’ upcoming 33rd National Conference on Gambling Addiction and Responsible Gambling. That conference, organized by the US’s National Council on Problem Gambling, will be held July 18-20, 2019, in Denver, Colorado.
Tim Miller, executive director at the Gambling Commission said: “The new role for GREO to support the National Strategy is a perfect example of the collaboration we called for in the Strategy. GREO is a well-respected independent research organisation with a wealth of experience in gambling research and dissemination. Ultimately, their expertise, networks and insight will help us and our partners to accelerate progress over the next three years.”
Trudy Smit Quosai from Gambling Research Exchange added: “We are thrilled to announced our work as part of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms. It means we will be working with the best thinkers around the world to help tackle the issue and provide independent, evidence-based research to support the strategy’s priorities.”
COMMENTS