Is An Addiction Keeping You Broke?

Whether it's drink, drugs, overspending or gambling, addictions can have a massively detrimental effect on our wellbeing. 

New research from Oxford University has shone a light on how regular gambling affects wellbeing.* The researchers analysed the banking transactions of millions of Lloyds Bank's UK customers and found:

•  High levels of gambling are associated with a 37% increase in mortality

• The top 1% of gamblers surveyed spent 58% of their income gambling 

• 1 in 10 are spending 8% of their income on the habit of gambling 
  
  
  

The study, which was lead by Dr. Naomi Muggleton, of Oxford's Department of Social Policy and Intervention, highlights the financial damage, harmful lifestyles and health of gamblers, who can move from 'social' to high-level gambling in months.

But what shocked me most was just how much some people in the UK are spending on their gambling habits. Over 500,000 people spend over £900 per month on gambling, and over 200,000 people spend over £1,800 per month on gambling.

So half a million people in the UK are wasting between £11,000 and £22,000 a year on gambling. How much wealth could they accumulate or how much quicker could they reduce debt if they stopped gambling?

Dr. Muggleton says, “To me, the striking finding is the extent to which even low levels of gambling are associated with harm. For many years, there has been a focus on outcomes among the most extreme gamblers. Our work shows that financial distress, social ills, and poorer health are more prevalent among low-level gamblers.”

Dr. Rachel Volberg, of the school of public health at the University of Massachusetts, says, “This study represents a real leap in helping us understand gambling harms that will influence thinking in the gambling studies field and beyond.”

The researchers note the increasing perception that gambling is an 'ordinary pastime' due to advertising increasing its visibility in the last decade. For example, sport has become dominated by gambling associations: “One in six adverts shown during the broadcaster ITV's programming for the 2018 FIFA World Cup promoted gambling.” Public health researchers have called this process the 'gamblification of sport'. 

"New research has noted the increasing perception that gambling is an 'ordinary pastime' due to advertising increasing its visibility in the last decade."
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Dr. Muggleton says, “It's unclear whether gambling causes negative outcomes, or whether already vulnerable people are disproportionately targeted by bookmakers, for example, through advertising and locating betting shops in impoverished neighbourhoods. Either of these relationships is worrying and could have implications for public health policies.”

And what is an even worse tragedy is that there is at least one gambling-related suicide in the UK every day.

The message is clear. Regular gambling is likely to harm your financial wellbeing because it sucks the life out of your income, increases or prolongs indebtedness, and stops you from building wealth. 

If you or anyone you know is suffering from a gambling addiction, or think you might have a problem, then you can get help at gamblersanonymous.org.uk.

And if you or anyone you know is suffering from any other type of addiction, then you can find resources and support at geniusrecovery.org.

* Muggleton, N., Parpart, P., Newall, P. et al. “The association between gambling and financial, social and health outcomes in big financial data.” Nat Hum Behav (2021). Accessed from https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01045-w