APG holds third session of its inquiry into public health approaches to tackling gambling-related harms

On Monday (13 March) the Northern Ireland All Party Group (APG) on Reducing Harm Related to Gambling met for the third oral evidence session of its inquiry into public health approaches to tackling gambling-related harms. The group heard evidence from Dr Matt Gaskell, who is Clinical Lead and Consultant Psychologist for the NHS Northern Gambling Service, and Tim Cairns, Senior Policy Officer at Christian Action Research and Education (CARE).

Tim Cairns highlighted that we "need to understand the [gambling] problem better" - the prevalence "data [for Northern Ireland] is hopelessly out of date". He said that baseline data has not been updated since 2016. 

Matt Gaskell told APG members that we've "got to move away from the personal responsibility narrative" and "focus on the the commercial driver of [gambling related] harm" - reducing the "profits of the [gambling] industry to reduce harm".

The next oral evidence session is scheduled for Monday 27 March and will take place virtually.

To watch Monday's session in full, click here.