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The UK has opened a new independent research centre focused on gambling-related harm, with levy funding set aside for evidence, prevention, and policy work.
Good to Know
The new Gambling Harms Research UK Evidence Centre arrives after years of concern over weak evidence, sector influence, and limited research capacity in gambling harm policy.
A consortium from the Universities of Glasgow, Sheffield, Swansea, and King’s College London will run the centre. DCMS announced the centre on Thursday, while UK Research and Innovation will provide funding through part of the government-run statutory levy.
Money from the levy gives the project scale from day one. UKRI will use its 20% share of the Gambling Levy to support the centre, equal to £22.1 million for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Earlier in 2025, the levy also put £25.4 million into gambling harm prevention groups.
The centre will study gambling harm across public health, policy, sport, online gambling, video-game gambling, financial data, algorithms, and structural risk factors. It will also coordinate 19 Innovation Partnerships under the GHR-UK framework.
Professor Heather Wardle, director of the centre and professor of gambling research and policy at the University of Glasgow, said:
“For too long, gambling research has been under-resourced and overlooked.
“New funding through the levy and UKRI marks a vital reset, strengthening the quality and scale of gambling harms research and ensuring policy is driven by rigorous, independent evidence.”
UKRI said harmful gambling costs the UK economy about £1.4 billion each year. It also linked gambling harm with public health pressure, criminal justice costs, depression, and suicide.
Independence sits at the centre of the project. Gambling harm researchers warned Parliament in April 2025 about past sector influence over research funding and priorities. Wardle also told the health and social care committee that earlier work had sometimes reflected questions and viewpoints shaped by the gambling sector.
Lived experience will also guide the centre. Martin Jones, a campaigner and charity worker who has experienced gambling-related suicide within his family, will serve as lived-experience lead. He said:
“Research isn’t an intellectual exercise sitting in isolation.
“It is and should be closely linked to real gambling harms affecting real people.
“We need to do much more to prevent these harms, and coordinating top quality research will support this, especially by exploring the more complex areas around suicide, algorithms, and financial data.”
The centre forms part of a wider UKRI Research Programme on Gambling. That programme already includes 32 rapid evidence reviews, 19 Innovation Partnerships, and four UKRI policy fellows. UKRI also expects more funding for topics such as the overlap between gambling and video gaming.