A leading gambling-awareness charity has warned that the cost of living crisis may lead to an increase in the number of women engaging in gambling.
An online survey of 1,606 women aged 18-49 (who had gambled in the last month) conducted by Opinium found that 24% of women expected to gamble more due to the cost of living crisis and that one in ten (12%) had already turned to gambling in an attempt to supplement their household income.
In response to the findings, GambleAware has launched a campaign to challenge the stigma surrounding women who gamble, encouraging them and their loved ones to spot early warning signs around their gambling before it escalates.
GLAMOUR spoke to Emily Clarkson and Alex Light, the hosts of Should I Delete That?, who have partnered with GambleAware on their campaign, to find out more about how we can reduce the stigma around women who struggle with gambling:
GLAMOUR: Hi, Emily and Alex! It's great to chat with you today. Can you explain why you've decided to support this campaign?
Emily and Alex: We decided to support this campaign because women and gambling is an issue that is not spoken about enough.
Many people don’t realise this, but 6 million women in the UK have gambled over the last month. That’s a lot of women! However, what’s really terrifying is that up to one million of them risk experiencing harm from gambling.
Despite gambling being really popular amongst women, they don’t often talk about it with other people. Keeping any concerns around their gambling bottled up means they are at risk of different types of harm, including feeling anxious or arguing with their friends and family. There is also a general lack of awareness of gambling harms among women, which can exacerbate the harm they experience, leading to shame, and guilt and holding them back from seeking treatment if they need it.
We have never been afraid of tackling topics that others might find awkward or want to avoid – in fact, we thrive on talking about them! We decided to partner up with GambleAware on this campaign to encourage women to open up the conversation around gambling and raise awareness of vital support available for those who may be struggling.
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What do you think stops women from opening up about gambling compared to men?
We came into this campaign without a huge amount of knowledge about gambling, but one of the main misconceptions we had was that gambling harms only really affected men! What we’ve now discovered is the number of women receiving gambling treatment has actually doubled in the past five years, and one in five women are already experiencing health challenges like stress and anxiety because of their gambling.
In addition, and we hadn’t realised this, but women’s experience of gambling harms differs to men’s in quite a few ways. Women experience more stigma and shame around their gambling, they are more likely to say it causes them mental health issues, and they are less likely to access support and treatment. These are very concerning differences and show why this is such an important conversation to be had.
Why is there such a stigma around women and gambling?
Now that is a really interesting question, and one of the key aims of GambleAware’s campaign is to challenge the stigma that so many women feel about gambling. When GambleAware launched the first phase of their Women’s Prevention campaign back in January, they did so with research that showed almost 40% of women experiencing high levels of gambling harm may not seek out help due to stigma or shame.
This statistic really shocked us. A key driver for why we created Should I Delete That? was to challenge taboos and uncomfortable topics for women. So, when we found out that this was such a contentious issue for so many women, we knew we had to get involved.
Understanding stigma and why so many women experience it around their gambling is a really complex area that is still be investigated.
There are so many reasons why this is such a common feeling. Embarrassment and shame are definitely ones that are up there. GambleAware’s research showed that among women who gamble, one in three (32%) said they would be reluctant to speak to a family member about concerns over their gambling, with nearly half (49%) stating shame representing a key barrier. Another reason could be this idea that women are meant to responsible caregivers and gambling is often seen to be an irresponsible activity. In fact, their research also showed that two-thirds (64%) of women who gamble think people view gambling as less acceptable if you’re a mother.
These are such eye-opening statistics and really demonstrate why shining a light on this important topic is so vital.
What barriers stop women from accessing support for gambling?
A key barrier that prevents women from seeking treatment, support or advice is the perception that their gambling isn’t harmful or that they only gambled small amounts and therefore didn’t need support.
Online gambling is so easily available nowadays and the games like bingo and fruit machines seem so innocent and sociable that women are drawn in. These types of games are often enjoyed by people who want to relax and take a moment to switch off, which is even easier to do now because we all basically have a portable casino in our phone 24/7. They seem safe and familiar and are so similar to the free play digital games we are all now used to playing that some women may not actually be aware they are starting to experience harm from gambling!
That’s why we are so passionate about supporting this campaign because we hope it will empower women to take action by recognising the warning signs such as spending too much time gambling, spending too much money gambling and hiding your gambling from others. All we want to do is encourage anyone who is worried about their gambling or that of a loved one to visit BeGambleAware.org, where there is free help and advice available.
The number of women at risk from gambling harms is soaring, but stigma is stopping them getting the help they so desperately need.
