National Centre for Social Research launches new dedicated Centre for Gambling Research

The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) today launches its new Centre for Gambling Research.

Led by Dr Sokratis Dinos, Director of Health, and Mari Toomse-Smith, Director of Health and Biomedical Surveys at NatCen, the new Centre builds on NatCen’s track record of world-class gambling research, working at the intersection of industry regulators, service and treatment providers and public stakeholders to inform policy. 

The Centre combines robust methods with topic expertise to investigate the prevalence of gambling and shapes public understanding of behaviours and risk profiles linked to gambling harm and stigma. Since delivering the British Gambling Prevalence Survey for the Gambling Commission in 2000, NatCen has developed specialist knowledge and collaborations in this field, strengthening its reputation as a leader in the gambling research landscape. 

Dr Sokratis Dinos, Director of Health at NatCen, 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. Our Patterns of Play research was the first of its kind to explore the online gambling market and this evidence played a pivotal role in the development of the Gambling Reforms White Paper. 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 in to understand better.”

ENDS

For more information please contact:

Emileigh Spurdens, Communications Manager
t:020 7549 8506 e: emileigh.spurdens@natcen.ac.uk

Notes to editors: 

• The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), Britain’s largest independent, not-for-profit, social research organisation, aims to promote a better-informed society through high quality social research (natcen.ac.uk).
• The Centre for Gambling Research proudly works with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Gamble Aware, Gambling Commission, Greo Insights, Plymouth University, University of Brighton, University of Liverpool, and the University of Wolverhampton. 
• More information on the Centre for Gambling Research (natcen.ac.uk/centres/centre-gambling-research) 
• If you would like to get in touch, please email gamblingresearch@natcen.ac.uk