GambleAware: Women’s Gambling Harm Prevention Campaign

On Thursday the 3rd of February, GambleAware held a webinar to spotlight the launch of their new gambling harm prevention campaign. This is targeted specifically at women. As shown by academic research, men and women often experience gambling differently. This is in how they play, as well as the harms they can experience and how they seek support.

Between 2017 and 2021 there was a 54% increase in women gambling online, compared to 28% of men. This coincided with the UK National Gambling Treatment Service reporting that the amount of women seeking their support had doubled. Research also showed that women face multiple gendered perception barriers when seeking help, such as stigma, lack of awareness and thinking services are for men.

These are only some of the statistics shared, highlighting the dire need for a gendered approach to gambling harm prevention.

The GambleAware campaign aims to encourage women to take action to moderate their gambling behaviour. The three-stranded campaign began with a headline grabbing news narrative, which focused on the 1 million UK women found, in their research, to be potentially experiencing gambling related harms (with a PGSI score of 3+).

Following this has been eye catching and creative content, (see the video below) seeking to drive awareness and self-reflection. This content is in the form of both digital and social ads, in addition to online resources.

Lastly, a number of influential voices have been leveraged, especially from the Health Community, to encourage women to take steps to change their behaviours.

The creative content and advertisements focus on a woman, who is completely oblivious to the family setting around her, as she gambles. This was tested pre-launch to not only ensure it resonated with the target audience (Low-risk female gamblers between 18-55), but to ensure it would strike the right tone and catch their attention. 

GambleAware has also developed an in-depth evaluation system for the campaign. It comprises multiple KPIs from across the behaviour change journey they aim to encourage. These are: 

• Reach/Messaging KPIs which include media reach metrics and message takeout, 
• Recognition KPIs such as recognising early warning signs, 
• Understanding/Motivations KPIs such as knowing where to go for advice,
• Action KPIs such as reported actions undertaken.

The research undertaken which supports this campaign has shown it comes at a critical time in our post-pandemic world. Men and women unequivocally experience gambling and gambling related harms differently. GambleAware aims to raise awareness and understanding of this issue, and to promote the support available.