Housing First Dual Diagnosis Team Blog: Gambling
In this month's blog from the Housing First Dual Diagnosis team, they discuss gambling in people who are homeless and the support available to them if it becomes a problem.
Out of 39 runners, only one horse won the Grand National in April of this year. For most people who made a bet on the race, this meant that they lost their money. This reflects the experience of gambling for a lot of people. They gamble occasionally with low amounts of money, and it is not a concern for them if they lose. The kind of things they bet on are one off big events such as the Football World Cup or major horse races. Alternatively, people may pick numbers for the National Lottery or use National Lottery scratch cards. Again, this may be for a low amount of money even if it is as often as once a week.
However, for some people, gambling is a major problem for them. They will spend all their available money on gambling activities. This could be on slot machines, Greyhound racing, roulette, online games or a variety of other types of gambling. They may not want to tell others about their extent of their gambling and may spend a large amount of time either gambling or thinking about gambling. When people have a problem with gambling, instead of stopping when they lose a lot of money, they are inclined to gamble more to win back their losses. When a person has a problem with gambling it can have a major impact on their family life, relationships, and work life. It can have a major impact on a person’s mental health. People may also use gambling to cope with their mental health problems. Both men and women can have major problems with gambling even though they may gamble on different things. In recent years, there has been a shift to gambling with mobile phones and people can find this very hard to manage as this form of gambling is available 24 hours a day 365 days a year. As gambling companies have been able to make large profits on gambling, there has been an increase in the promotion of different forms of gambling. For people who have problems with gambling, it can be difficult to avoid the option of gambling in their day to day lives.
For people who are homeless although they may be less likely to gamble in general, a greater proportion may have problems with their gambling in the manner outlined above. There are many reasons why there is a higher proportion of people who are homeless having problems with gambling. People who are homeless may be more likely to have mental health problems and problems with addictions compared to people who are not homeless. In addition, the impact of gambling for someone who is homeless will be greater due to having less disposable income than someone who is not homeless. People who are homeless may have become homeless due to debt resulting from a long term pattern of gambling. Another key element to consider is that the adverse effect of gambling occurs much more quickly for those with limited financial and material resources. This is another reason that people who are homeless are much more sensitive to the impact of gambling.
As mentioned above, people who have problems with gambling can also have other mental health problems and can be in very stressful social situations. This can be especially the case if someone is homeless. Having a problem with gambling can make a person’s mental health and social situation worse. However, people who have problems with gambling may also use gambling as a way to cope with stressful situations and mental health difficulties. Getting help for a person’s mental health and social situation is another important way of helping someone who has problems with gambling. The pressures of these stresses can result in a person feeling suicidal. This is something that should be considered in a person who has a problem with gambling with provision of appropriate help if there are concerns about this.
Several resources are available to help people who have problems with gambling. There are a number of NHS clinics around England including (amongst others) The NHS Northern Gambling Clinic and the West Midlands Gambling Harm Clinic. Other services available include GamCare and Gamblers Anonymous. The main form of treatment is generally through group work but there is also one to one treatment available. The websites to these services are listed below. These websites have links to many services helpful for people who have problems with gambling such as MOSES (Multi-Operator Self-Exclusion Service), GAMSTOP (self-exclusion from gambling websites and gambling apps based in the UK), Stepchange Debt Charity (for help with debt management) and many other services. Whether a person is homeless or not, these services can help with their gambling problems.
Key Points
- Gambling can become problematic for some people and affect the quality of their lives severely.
- People who are homeless include a higher proportion of people who have problems with gambling compared to those who are not homeless.
- People who have problems with gambling may have other mental health problems and can be at increased risk of suicide.
- There are a range of services to help people who have problems with gambling.
Helpful Websites
