Heather Wardle

Heather Wardle
University of Glasgow | UofG · School of Social and Political Sciences

BA (hons); MA; PGcert; PhD

About

127
Publications
41,247
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
3,858
Citations
Additional affiliations
December 2002 - June 2015
NatCen Social Research
Position
  • Research Director
December 2002 - present
NatCen Social Research

Publications

Publications (127)
Article
Full-text available
Background To explore continuities and changes in gambling behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic and the factors that influenced these among a sample of regular sports bettors. Methods A longitudinal qualitative study using in-depth interviews. Sixteen sports bettors living in Britain took part in the first interviews in July-November 2020, and 1...
Article
Full-text available
Background In the UK, recent evidence of young people and gambling indicates a higher prevalence of gambling in comparison to other addictive behaviours. Engaging in gambling-related behaviour at a young age is associated with short and long-term consequences, including financial, emotional, academic, interpersonal, and physical and mental health d...
Article
The Americas are facing a significant burden of mental health conditions. The Pan American Health Organisation’s regional Strategy for Improving Mental Health and Suicide Prevention is an important milestone in tackling this challenge. However, absence of any focus on gambling as a potential risk to the health and wellbeing represents a serious omi...
Article
The public health community has called for governments to recognise the harms associated with gambling, and for gambling policies to include population-based harm prevention approaches. This Health Policy explores the translation of this call into global policy action by systematically reviewing legislation of jurisdictions that introduced major ga...
Article
Full-text available
Background Commercial gambling has increased rapidly, with attendant concerns about impact. A critical policy question is whether increased provision and consumption leads to greater levels of harm. The Total Consumption Model posits that that there is a close link between mean consumption and excessive levels of harm in a population, and has been...
Article
Full-text available
Background Sports betting is a growth area for the gambling industry with football fans becoming a key target of advertising. This demographic is also one at elevated risk from gambling harm. This paper reflects on the NIHR-funded Football Fans and Betting project (FFAB) - an innovative early health intervention with football fans (aged 18-55) who...
Article
Full-text available
Background/Issue The public health community has increasingly called for governments to recognise the health harms associated with gambling, and for prevention policies to include population-based approaches. Whether and to what extent these calls have translated into actual policy-making globally has not been investigated. Our paper fills this gap...
Article
Full-text available
Background Whilst some research has explored the impact of COVID-19 on gambling behaviour, little is yet known about online search behaviours for gambling during this period. The current study explored gambling-related online searches before, during and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. We also assessed whether search trends we...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background In the UK, recent evidence of young people and gambling indicates a higher prevalence of gambling in comparison to other addictive behaviours. Engaging in gambling-related behaviour at a young age is associated with short and long-term consequences, including financial, emotional, academic, interpersonal, and physical and mental health d...
Article
The total consumption model (TCM) postulates a close link between total consumption and levels of harm within the population, which has important implications for prevention. This review aimed to explore evidence relating to the application of the TCM and theoretical elements associated with it (i.e. the distribution of harms; the concentration of...
Article
Full-text available
Gambling harms are disproportionately experienced among disadvantaged groups and as such, adult social care (ASC) practitioners are well-placed to identify and support affected individuals. There exists no evidence-based ‘introductory’ question for practitioners to identify those at risk of gambling harms, which includes family and friends (‘affect...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Esports fans are a target audience for gambling companies wanting to attract the next generation of bettors to their products. As with other sports, professional esports teams have commercial sponsorship arrangements. Our paper seeks to document the level of gambling sponsorship of the world's top esports teams. Methods: A systematic...
Article
Background: Cross-sectional studies identify problem gambling as a risk factor for suicidality. Using an online longitudinal survey, we aimed to examine the association between changes in severity of gambling behaviour and attempted suicide. Methods: The Emerging Adults Gambling Survey is a longitudinal survey of people in England, Scotland, and...
Article
Objective: To summarise the evidence on the impacts of gambling-related advertising that could lead to gambling-related harm, including impacts on vulnerable individuals and inequalities in the distribution of harms. Study design: An umbrella review of studies investigating the impact of gambling advertising. Methods: A review was undertaken o...
Article
Aims: To measure the association between problem gambling severity and 19 different gambling activities among emerging adults (aged 16-26). Design: An online non-probability longitudinal survey collecting data in two waves: wave 1, July/August 2019; wave 2, July/October 2020. Setting: Great Britain PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2080 young adults pa...
Article
Full-text available
Industry data sharing has the potential to revolutionise evidence on video gaming and mental health, as well as a host of other critical topics. However, collaborative data sharing agreements between academics and industry partners may also afford industry enormous power in steering the development of this evidence base. In this paper, we outline h...
Article
Gambling‐related harms are increasingly recognised as public health concerns internationally. One response is to improve identification of and support for those affected by gambling‐related harms, including individuals who gamble and those close to them, ‘affected others’. Adult social care services have been identified as a setting in which screen...
Article
Full-text available
Changes in gambling advertising during national COVID-19 ‘lockdowns’, when stay-at-home rules restricted participation in certain gambling activities, provides important context to variance in gambling behaviour during these periods. This study describes expenditure on paid-for gambling advertising during three national lockdowns, compares expendit...
Conference Paper
Background There is increasing public support for restrictions on gambling advertising related to greater awareness of the risk of gambling-related harms to both individuals and the wider community. Further development of the evidence base is required to support the development of evidence-informed policy in this field. We aimed to evaluate the sco...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding how the gambling industry generates revenue is of paramount importance. Questions about whether higher volumes of expenditure are concentrated among a small proportion of gamblers, and how this varies by problematic gambling status, underpin policy debate about consumer protection. Analyzing data from two timepoints (T0; T2) from a Br...
Article
Full-text available
Background In 2020, the British Government initiated a review about whether to introduce stricter controls on gambling marketing. We examine: (i) what proportion of regular sports bettors and emergent adult gamblers report that marketing has prompted unplanned spend; and (ii) what factors are associated with reporting that marketing had prompted un...
Chapter
Full-text available
This article argues that the framing of gambling is crucial for how it is dealt with at every level; from legislative, regulatory and commercial practice to the terms of media and civic debate. Whoever frames the debate has power over the ways that we can and cannot think about gambling, as well as what we can do about it. We take the example of Br...
Article
Full-text available
Background As in many other countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi’s commercial gambling sector has grown considerably in recent years. Driven by the widespread availability of internet through mobile devices, the industry has penetrated both urban and rural settings. In Malawi the model commonly implemented by gambling companies is similar to...
Article
Full-text available
Commercial gambling is increasingly viewed as being part of the unhealthy commodities industries, in which products contribute to preventable ill-health globally. Britain has one of the world’s most liberal gambling markets, meaning that the regulatory changes there have implications for developments elsewhere. A review of the British Gambling Act...
Conference Paper
Background Gambling advertising often contains a multitude of information about inducements and incentives, in addition to details of the specific gambling product marketed and other promotional features. Research suggests that consumers are more likely to misjudge the likelihood of winning or benefiting as the complexity of the gambling product of...
Chapter
Full-text available
The intersection of gaming and gambling has a long lineage. In recent years this process has amplified, arguably accelerated by developing technological infrastructures which facilitate rapid payment purchases and online and real-time systems which allow companies to communicate directly with users and users to communicate with each other. This cha...
Chapter
Full-text available
Our understanding of when gaming ends and gambling begins is unclear. This has been hotly debated among theorists and the inclusion of gambling-like practices within digital games makes this even more indistinct, arguably subverting traditional notions of what it means to play. We are hyper-attuned to changes in game play because we know the learni...
Chapter
Full-text available
Games, digital or otherwise, have always taken inspiration from their broader social, cultural and economic surroundings. They have been used to attempt to teach moral values and changed to reflect new, more modern, ideals. Their recent development is contingent on changing technological infrastructure, giving rise to a multi-billion pound entertai...
Article
Full-text available
Background In Britain, unprecedented restrictions on daily life associated with the Covid-19 pandemic included the suspension of professional sports events during the initial ‘lockdown’. This provides opportunities to observe changes in sports bettors’ behaviour when their primary form of activity is removed and assess the impact of Covid-19 relate...
Article
Full-text available
Background Suicide rates in young people have increased in England and Wales since 2010. There are a range of possible explanations for this increase, and problem gambling has been suggested as a potential risk factor. We aimed to examine the association between suicidality (suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts) and problem gambling specifically...
Book
Full-text available
This open access book focuses on how and why digital games and gambling are increasingly intertwined and asks “does this matter?” Looking at how “loot boxes” became the poster child for the convergence of gambling and gaming, Wardle traces how we got here. She argues that the intersection between gambling and gaming cultures has a long lineage, one...
Article
Full-text available
The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented restrictions on people’s movements and interactions, as well as the cancellation of major sports events and social activities, directly altering the gambling landscape. There is urgent need to provide regulators, policy makers and treatment providers with evidence on the patterns and context of gambling du...
Article
Full-text available
With the introduction of gambling-like features within video games (e.g., loot boxes) new forms of hybrid-gambling products have emerged, yet little is known about their relationship to gambling and problem gambling among those most likely to engage: young people. This article examines the relationship between the purchase of loot boxes, gambling b...
Article
Full-text available
Competitive video gaming (esports) is a growing multi-national, billion-dollar industry. Esports cultures replicate traditional sports cultures, involving elite athletes, teams, league sponsorships, large viewing audiences, high profile leagues and championships, and opportunities to bet on outcomes. However, little is known about people who bet on...
Article
Full-text available
The Emerging Adults Gambling Survey is a longitudinal survey of young adults aged 16-24 living in Great Britain. It aims to explore a range of gambling behaviours and harms among young adults and examine how this changes over time. It is part of a broader project funded by Wellcome into the gambling behaviours of young people and its relationship w...
Preprint
Full-text available
Using hidden Markov models to predict developing problematic gambling behaviour based on early gambling behaviour, on online platforms: this is a proof of concept.
Article
Full-text available
Objectives Problem gamblers in treatment are known to be at high risk for suicidality, but few studies have examined if this is evident in community samples. Evidence is mixed on the extent to which an association between problem gambling and suicidality may be explained by psychiatric comorbidity. We tested whether they are associated after adjust...
Article
Full-text available
There is increasing attention on the introduction of gambling-like practices within video games. Termed convergence, this has been explored from the viewpoint of the product, examining similarities in game/gambling mechanics. Understanding convergence of practice is essential to map the epidemiology of these behaviours, especially among children. T...
Article
Full-text available
Exploring perceptions, experiences and determinants of youth gambling is crucial for understanding both the impact of youth gambling now and the antecedents of future behaviour. Qualitative research plays an important role in exploring these processes, yet to date, there has been no systematic review of qualitative scientific literature of youth ga...
Technical Report
Full-text available
This report is the output of an expert group assembled to a) agree a definition of gambling-related harms to be used in British policy and practice, b) consider how gambling-related harms may be better understood, measured and monitored and c) to explore whether it is possible to attach some estimate of the social cost of gambling-related harms and...
Article
In England gambling provision has a distinct spatial pattern, with gambling venues clustering in areas of greater deprivation. Previous attempts to identify areas with people vulnerable to gambling problems have relied on mapping places of greater socio-economic deprivation. Indices of deprivation only include a narrow range of characteristics and...
Article
Full-text available
Research on multiple health behaviours is increasing but little is known about parental behaviours and how they covary. Our study investigates cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption and physical activity among mothers and co-resident partners in England. Using the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we examined (i) cl...
Article
This paper examines the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling among people of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi cultural backgrounds living in Great Britain. Information was gathered from the last two versions of a large-scale national adult prevalence survey and a similar survey of children aged 11 to 15 years, all conducted since 2007. Tog...
Book
Full-text available
Latest statistics on adult gambling behaviour in England and Scotland
Article
The Reasons for Gambling Questionnaire (RGQ) consist of 15 items forming five factors: enhancement, social, money, recreation and coping. The RGQ was developed for use in the 2010 British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BGPS) and has now been employed in the second Social and Economic Impact Study (SEIS) of Gambling in Tasmania study conducted in 2011...