UK – The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) has launched a new Centre for Gambling Research.

The new centre will focus on research about the gambling industry, working across industry regulators, service and treatment providers and public stakeholders to inform policy.

The centre will be led by Sokratis Dinos, director of health, and Mari Toomse-Smith, director of health and biomedical surveys at NatCen.

Issues covered by the new centre include investigating the prevalence of gambling and understanding behaviours and risk profiles related to gambling harm and stigma.

NatCen has delivered the British Gambling Prevalence Survey for the Gambling Commission since 2000.

Dinos said: “We have been continuously diversifying our policy and methodological expertise into gambling, across related behaviours, harms and stigma and we’re pleased to now be launching this new dedicated Centre of Gambling Research.

“We are now proud to be continuing our work with the Gambling Commission on the Gambling Survey of Great Britain, which will provide timely statistics on participation in gambling and the prevalence of problem gambling, the first of which is to be published in Spring 2024.”

Guy Goodwin, chief executive at NatCen, added: “The launch of the Centre for Gambling Research will bring together NatCen’s collective knowledge and expertise.

“NatCen has a team of researchers with experience working with mixed-methods expertise in gambling treatment gaps, gambling prevalence, attitudes to gambling and gambling harms, and evaluation of gambling interventions.

“Our researchers are also experts with experience of researching stigma in relation to gambling and more, across a range of research methods. This is an important policy area that we continue to work to understand better.”