Treatment Statistics from 2018-2020 in context
Updated: Nov 25, 2020
National Gambling Treatment Service statistics (Great Britain) published by GambleAware: 2018/19 and 2019/20.
Executive Summary
Overview of treatment statistics in Great Britain (for services that report to the DRF):
Overall, 9008 and 7675 individuals were treated within gambling services within 2019/20 and 2018/19, respectively
3905 (66.3%) and 3635 (68.1%) gambling clients completed scheduled treatment in 2019/20 and 2018/19, respectively
954 (80.2%) and 580 (78.6%) affected others completed scheduled treatment in 2019/20 and 2018/19, respectively
Key findings
Less than 1% of past-year PGs in Great Britain completed treatment
Less than 0.03% of affected others completed treatment
Treatment services see significantly fewer younger (16-34 year olds) and BAME gamblers than are expected using data from the last well-designed prevalence study
Gambling treatment services are disproportionately reliant on self-referrals when compared to other addiction treatment services in the UK
Median waiting time for residential services were reported at 104 days in 2019/20 and 116 days in 2018/19 - reflecting a mismatch between needs and provisions
Although treatment statistics reflect tremendous improvements in clients, only 30% reported a score of 0 on the PGSI at the end of treatment - indicating the importance of follow-up care and support
Treatment data shows significant improvements in PGSI and CORE-10 and thus demonstrate that treatments have a profoundly impactful impact on health and wellbeing
Methods
Firstly, we compare the age-gender-ethnic distributions of the treatment population over what may be expected based on prevalence statistics from the latest well-designed study (BGPS 2010)
Finally, we summarise data on sources of referral into treatment and treatment outcomes
Results
Number of individuals by PGSI at earliest appointment in 2019/20 (2018/19)
No problem 54 (36)
Low-risk 49 (36) or approximately 0.02% of low-risk harm gamblers
Moderate-risk 280 (174) or approximately 0.3% of moderate-risk harm gamblers
Problem gambler 6326 (5952) or approximately 1% of gamblers who suffer problem gambling harm
Number of affected others
There are an estimated 3.9m individuals who suffer significant harm due to someone else's gambling (6 affected others for every case of gambling disorder)
We estimate that less than 0.03% of affected others are treated within gambling services in Great Britain
Gambling clients by age
Distribution of gambling clients in treatment by age remained stable from 2018/19 - 2019/20.
Treatment populations are significantly older than the expected population, and this is most pronounced among 16-24 and 25-34 year olds

Gambling clients by ethnicity
Distribution of gambling clients in treatment by ethnicity remained stable from 2018/19 - 2019/20.
Treatment populations are significantly and disproportionately less composed of BAME ethnic groups

Source of referral into treatment for Gambling clients in 2019/20 (2018/19)
Self-referral: 92.2% (92.2%)
Prison: 1.5% (0.8%)
Other service or agency: 2.0% (2.4%)
GP: 1.4% (1.7%)
Mental health NHS trust: 0.9% (0.9%)
Other primary health care: 0.9% (0.8%)
Probation service: 0.3% (0.3%)
Employer: 0.2% (<0.1%)
Social services: 0.2% (0.2%)
Drug Misuse Services: 0.1% (0.0%)
Police: 0.1% (0.2%)
Carer: 0.1% (0.1%)
Comparing referral reasons in other treatment services for 2018/19

Waiting times in 2019/20 (2018/19)
For clients treated during 2018/19 and 2019/20, 50% of clients were seen within three days and 75% within eight days
Waiting times for residential services were higher, with 50% of clients seen within 104 days (116 days)
Treatment
PGSI change in 2019/20 (2018/19)
Between earliest and latest appointment within treatment, the median change was of an improvement by 12 points (13 points)
For individuals with gambling disorder completing treatment, 74% (76%) were no longer defined as problem gamblers at the end of treatment and 30% (36%) scored a score of 0 (reflecting no gambling-harm in the past 12 months)
CORE-10 change in 2019/20 (2018/19)
In both 2018/19 and 2019/20, the average change in CORE-10 scores in gambling clients, between earliest and latest appointments, was by 8 points
For those completing scheduled treatment, improved scores were recorded for 85.8% (87.1%) of individuals
When comparing percentages of gambling clients below clinical cut off, 14.8% were below the cut-off at the earliest appointment and 54.2% were at the latest (14.7%, 54.5%)
Conclusion
Treatment providers play a pivotal role in improving the health and wellbeing of individuals suffering gambling-harm either as gamblers or as affected others
Groups that are disproportionately affected by gambling-harm such as younger people and individuals from a BAME background are also less likely to be receiving treatment
Other gaps in services are perceived in provisions for affected others, residential services, and follow-up care
Relative to other addiction treatment services, gambling-treatment services are far more reliant on self-referral which is reflective of systemic issues within health care and criminal justice
Only a small fraction of those suffering gambling-harm (less than 1%) complete treatment which demonstrates that gambling-harm is still neglected relative to other issues