Up to 1 million women in UK at risk of harm from gambling, study finds

theguardian.com:

Up to a million women are at risk of being harmed by gambling, according to a study that found that traffic to online casino and bingo sites popular with women peaks in the winter months.

While gambling addicts are disproportionately male, the number of women seeking treatment has doubled in the past five years, up from 1,134 in 2015-16 to 2,423 in 2020-21.

But the great majority of them do not seek treatment, according to the gambling charity GambleAware, with two in five unwilling to do so due to stigma and embarrassment.

Women often avoid seeking help despite being more likely than men to report mental health difficulties caused by gambling, such as stress or anxiety, GambleAware found.

The rise in female gambling addiction has previously been attributed to the ease with which women can now access casino games and betting on smartphones, rather than needing to access traditionally male-dominated environments such as bookmakers.

According to a study that GambleAware will publish later this year, 1 million women are now deemed to be at risk of suffering harm, with the danger particularly acute during winter.

Visits to gambling websites with a majority female customer base – such as online bingo – typically rise by 29% between December and March, the charity said.

The charity is responding with an advertising campaign, launching today, which highlights warning signs such as losing track of time, spending unaffordable sums and hiding gambling from friends and family.

Jemima, whose name has been changed at her request, said her online gambling escalated when she became a mother and found her support networks lacking. “I became a mum at a young age, and that’s when I found online gambling. I saw it as my ‘me’ time – time to close