Exploring the relationship between gambling, debt and financial management in Britain

Abstract

The issue of how and why gamblers end up in debt has received comparatively little attention in the literature. Data from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) revealed that although problem gamblers were more likely than non-problem gamblers to have forms of financial debt, just under two-thirds of problem gamblers (62%) reported having no debt. Using a qualitative approach, this study aimed to explore the issue from the perspective of gamblers themselves through interviews with 27 purposively sampled gamblers drawn from participants who took part in the APMS and the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2010. Analysis, using the Framework method, suggested the existence of four kinds of gamblers categorized by their approach to gambling spending and their approach to their general spending: ‘controlled gamblers’, ‘uncontrolled gamblers’, ‘uncontrolled spenders’ and ‘chaotic spenders’. Also proposed on the basis of these data is an ecological model which aims to capture the different levels of personal and environmental factors that influenced people's financial decisions, including cognitive factors, control and compulsion, normative spending, resource and financial management, and the credit environment. The implications for practice are also discussed.

Keywords::

• addictive behaviour
• debt
• gambling
• typologies
• qualitative

Notes

^1. ASSIA: Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts, IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, PsyInfo, Pub Med and Web of Science.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matt Barnard

Matt Barnard specializes in conducting mixed-method research and evaluations focused on vulnerable populations including children who have suffered abuse or neglect, drug-dependent adults and problem gamblers. He has directed a range of studies related to problem gambling, and is currently the principal investigator for the current study exploring the relationship between gambling and financial hardship. Matt has particular expertise in qualitative methods, and has led the development of ‘critical qualitative theory’, a new approach to qualitative research that is described in a range of recent publications.

Jane Kerr

Jane Kerr is a Senior Researcher at NatCen in the Crime and Justice Team. She joined NatCen in April 2003 after graduating from Durham University with an MA in Social Anthropology. Jane has worked on a range of Qualitative and Quantitative studies at NatCen. Most recently, she has worked on a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, aiming to understand the relationship between money, debt and gambling.

Rachel Kinsella

Rachel Kinsella was a researcher at NatCen Social Research and is currently taking a career break.

Jim Orford

Jim Orford trained in clinical psychology and completed his PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and has since then worked in National Health Service and university settings in Exeter and Birmingham, specializing in research on alcohol, drugs and gambling. The nature and treatment of addiction and the effects of addiction on family members are amongst his special interests. Amongst his publications on gambling are the books Gambling and Problem Gambling in Britain (2003, with National Centre for Social Research co-authors) and An Unsafe Bet? The Dangerous Rise of Gambling and the Debate We Should Be Having (2011).

Gerda Reith

Gerda Reith is a Professor of Social Science at the University of Glasgow. She has conducted extensive research and published widely on the role of social and environmental factors in the development of different types of gambling behaviour. She has provided specialist advice to the Department of Health, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and the Scottish Executive, as well as Australian and Canadian state governments on gambling-related issues, and she sits on the editorial boards of a number of international gambling journals. She is a member of the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board, which advises the UK Government and the Gambling Commission on strategic priorities for research, education and treatment, and until December 2010 was Chair of its Research Panel.

Heather Wardle

Heather Wardle is a Senior Research Director in the Health and Wellbeing Department at NatCen Social Research (NatCen), UK. She has 10 years' experience of working in applied social research and is NatCen's research lead on gambling studies, and was Project Director of the British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BGPS). She was lead analyst of the BGPS 2007 data and reprised this role for the BGPS 2010. In 2008/09 she led a team of academics in a package of work which conducted secondary analysis of the BGPS 2007 data, culminating in the publication of seven peer-reviewed journal articles and three full research reports, demonstrating her skills in applying complex analytical techniques to large datasets. Heather is also a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Glasgow.