How gambling harms financial inclusion

Lynne Galloway

30th October 2025
Scotland
7 mins read

Gambling significantly harms communities and individuals, leading to financial exclusion. Public Health Scotland’s Lynne Galloway discusses this link, its impact on disadvantaged groups and initiatives combating harm in this briefing.

Gambling can have significant financial impacts on individuals and communities, often leading to financial exclusion and distress. In this briefing, Public Health Scotland Health Improvement Manager, Lynne Galloway, highlights the connection between gambling harm and financial inclusion, its impact on economically disadvantaged groups, and initiatives designed to counteract further harm at local and national levels.

Financial inclusion ensures vulnerable groups can access affordable services like savings, credit, and insurance. Gambling, risking money without a guaranteed return, often leads to debt, hindering financial inclusion.

Setting the scene

Gambling harms are the adverse impacts from gambling on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities and society. Over 50 metrics of gambling harm have been identified, including:

Work absenteeism, job loss and unemployment
Financial insecurity, debt and bankruptcy
Use of food banks
Rent arrears and homelessness

Financial inclusion refers to the availability and equality of opportunity to access financial systems and services like savings, credit, and insurance. It aims to ensure that everyone, particularly the vulnerable and at-risk groups, has access to affordable financial products and services delivered responsibly.

There is a strong connection between gambling harm and financial inclusion. Gambling in its nature is defined as gaming, betting and participating in a lottery, which means people are risking spending their money on a product that may not give them a monetary return and may even force them into debt.

What the research tells us

Research suggests that people experiencing one or more of the 50 gambling harms are more likely to be at risk of financial harms and limited financial inclusion. This can lead to severe financial stress, debt, and even bankruptcy. Stigma surrounding gambling can significantly exacerbate the harms associated with it. When individuals feel ashamed or embarrassed about their gambling behaviour, they are less likely to seek help or admit to their losses. This can lead to a cycle of escalating harm, as their gambling continues in an attempt to recover losses, often resulting in even greater financial and emotional distress. Females are particularly vulnerable to financial stress, more so than males, even though males show higher levels of severe gambling harm.

The Gambling Harms in Greater Manchester – Strategic Needs Assessment highlights a key point that while some individuals may experience significant losses, a more pervasive problem is the frequent, smaller losses that accumulate over time. This pattern can lead to substantial financial and emotional harm without the immediate shock of a large loss. The assessment also emphasises the impact on ‘affected others’ – one in six people are affected by someone experiencing gambling harm. Family members, friends, social networks and communities can all suffer due to someone’s gambling behaviour.

The financial consequences and impacts of gambling harm can lead to broader health and social issues, including mental health problems, strained relationships, domestic violence and criminality. These can have long-lasting effects, including emotional distress, relationship breakdowns, and adverse impacts on work and education.

Health and social inequalities

Financial harm from gambling is often more severe in economically disadvantaged groups, contributing to broader health and social inequalities in society. These groups may experience higher stress levels and reduced access to financial services. Contextually, there are approximately 1,754 gambling premises in the most deprived areas of Scotland. Although there has been a reduction in the number of land-based gambling premises (April 2022 to March 2023), the number of adult gaming centres in Great Britain has increased by 7% since 2022. These are disproportionately located in more disadvantaged areas. Greater consideration of the density of premises in areas of deprivation should be given by licensing boards when assessing new applications.

All gambling premises

In addition, more and more people are gambling online, where there is less monitoring and regulation. Online gambling participation has doubled in Scotland between 2012 and 2021.

Action at local and national levels

Many frontline services, such as mental health services, housing support, citizens advice and financial advisory organisations, encounter people facing both financial distress and gambling-related harm. It’s crucial to recognise that the presenting problem may mask underlying issues with financial harm, gambling harm or addiction. Exploring and understanding the full context of their distress and providing comprehensive support is vital.

As a society, we have started to address this with initiatives to counteract further harm already underway.

The following are examples of such initiatives being implemented by local authorities:

North Ayrshire Council has created an in-house guide to help staff manage gambling-related issues and has signed up to the Harmful Gambling Workplace Charter.

East Ayrshire Council has developed a strategic plan for 2022-2027 and named one of their key priorities as addressing the “stigma and discrimination faced by people in recovery from addiction, including alcohol, gambling and drug use and improving access to treatment services and community supports.”

Edinburgh and Midlothian councils have banned gambling through their advertising and sponsorship policies. These policies prevent gambling ads from being promoted on assets directly owned or contracted by the Council and third-party sponsorship of Council events or initiatives.

National efforts are also being made to educate and train frontline staff to recognise and address gambling harms effectively:

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) recently trained financial inclusion staff to equip them better to recognise and support individuals affected by gambling-related issues.

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI) has highlighted the role of financial institutions in identifying and intervening in gambling-related harms. Banks and financial services can monitor transaction patterns to detect early signs of gambling issues and guide customers to appropriate support services.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set guidelines for financial firms to ensure the fair treatment of vulnerable and at-risk customers, including those affected by gambling.

Matrics Learn is a free debt advice training programme for financial advisers working for organisations with FCA authorisation in Scotland who want to give clients free, impartial, non-judgemental, and knowledgeable advice. Within the online learning platform, there is a two-hour gambling harm online training session. Money advisers undertaking the training sessions on gambling harms enable them to discuss this with clients. There is an example from North Lanarkshire Council of money advisers undertaking the training sessions on gambling harms to enable them to discuss this with clients. Furthermore, they have recently started recording gambling as a ‘reason for debt’.

What Public Health Scotland is doing

Public Health Scotland (PHS) is committed to raising awareness of gambling harms and promoting financial wellbeing, working collaboratively with the Scottish Government, local authorities, and partners to deliver coordinated action and sustainable change. This work aims to strengthen prevention, enhance early intervention, and reduce any impact across communities in Scotland.

By addressing both financial inclusion and gambling harm, we can work towards creating a more equitable and supportive financial environment for all.

For support with gambling harms, please visit Problem gambling | NHS inform

For further information on gambling harm, please view the PHS gambling harm webpages and/ or contact PHS.SVGHarms@phs.scot