According to BBC News, Gambling Harms Research Centre GHRC has been opened at the University of Bristol
The center which cost about £4m ($5m) to open is expected to increase the understanding and awareness of the dangers involved in the activities of gambling. The project is funded by GambleAware with the charity’s CEO in the person of Zoe Osmond who describes it as a major improvement.
Osmond added that ” We are incredibly happy and excited by the long=term benefits the project will bring by helping to drive new public health approaches that will reduce gambling harms for a wide range of communities across the globe”
The charity highlighted that the cost of living crisis coupled with the increase in people gambling online means that more people could be at risk of encountering the negative impacts that follow gambling.
The University has data on researching gambling issues and will merge research from six other facilities across disciplines such as personal finance, economics, psychology, and human geography.
The Task Ahead For GHCR
The Gambling Harms Research Centre GHCR will work for hand in hand with many other high-level establishments when conducting its research such as the Bristol Poverty Institute, Bristol Digital Future Institute, and the Bristol Population Health Science Institute.
The center proposes to improve its support and treatment for gambling issues through a public health-oriented approach, and addressing questions from various individuals like how gambling is practiced, what is the cause and initiates harmful gambling and the role of social variation in worsening gambling harms.
The Centre’s Co-Director in the person of Agnes Nairn, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Global engagement and professor of Marketing commented:
” I think the advent of social media had had a big impact on the increased volume of gambling that there is and the directed advertising that comes straight to someone.
If you are someone who has got some issues with gambling you are more likely to see more adverts”
