The Gambling Commission will explore the link between gambling and suicidality as part of the regulator’s updated research priorities and evidence roadmaps.

The regulator announced it would be focusing on six evidence roadmaps, which were determined based on previous evidence gaps and engagement with stakeholders.

Of those roadmaps, the regulator will explore ‘Gambling-related harm and vulnerability’, which will involve specific research on gambling-related suicide.

The roadmap will explore the links between products, environments and behaviours and “negative gambling experiences”, as well as how people engage with gambling over time when it becomes harmful.

The Gambling Commission said attention would also be played to how “cohort effects” come into play, as well as harder to reach groups and ethnic minorities.

Additionally, there will also be research around “legacy harms” for former players who no longer gamble and have successfully gone through treatment for gambling-related harm.

The roadmap states: “This theme is about understanding the different ways that consumers can experience gambling-related harms and identifying consumers in a vulnerable situation or at risk of experiencing negative consequences from their gambling.

“This includes the most severe consequences, such as gambling-related suicide. It also explores the experiences of people affected by someone else’s gambling.”

Specifically on suicidality, the Gambling Commission will work with other parties to produce national-level data on levels of gambling-related suicide, which would cover “ideation, attempts and completed suicides”.

“The links between gambling and suicidality, and levels of risk” and “severe adverse consequences of gambling, including factors leading to gambling-related suicide” are also sub-topics in the roadmap.

The regulator said that gambling-related suicide was covered in the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, but “robust data” on the topic was still a gap in the evidence base.

As per the recently published Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2024 annual report, 12.2% of respondents reported they had thought about or attempted taking their own life.

Of those 12.2%, the regulator noted 5.2% reported that these thoughts or actions were “related to their gambling either a little or a lot”.

The Gambling Commission said: “While current evidence highlights a clear association between gambling and suicidality, significant gaps remain in understanding how specific events and circumstances may lead to gambling-related suicide.

“To address this, the UK’s first psychological autopsy study is underway, aiming to explore the risk factors, environmental influences, contextual elements and behavioural patterns involved.

“Accurate and comprehensive information about the nature and extent of the link between gambling and suicidal behaviour is essential for effective prevention efforts.

“The focus of our own activities here will be to consider how research that is carried out by a range of bodies on the links between gambling and suicidality might shape future regulatory approaches.”

The other five evidence roadmaps the regulator will pursue are: early gambling experiences and gateway products, the range and variability of gambling experiences, the impact of operator practices, product characteristics and risk, and illegal gambling and crime.

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