In recent years, gambling in the Great Britain has increasingly been seen as a public health concern, with researchers arguing for legislated harm prevention measures. However, commercial gambling in Great Britain is not legislated as a public health concern and government-backed gambling initiatives, such as the National Lottery, are still taking place.
Duncan Jarvies, BMJ editor, talks with Heather Wardle, assistant professor and Wellcome Humanties and Social Sciences Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, about why problem gambling is not being treated as a public health problem. Wardle discusses a recent paper she co-published calling for action to treat gambling as a public health problem, and asseses the policy and funding environment that stops action from taking place.
