Spotlight on gambling: Findings from phase 4

The KCMHR cohort study has completed its fourth phase (2022-23), providing an abundance of information on health and wellbeing of serving and ex-serving members of the UK Armed Forces over the past twenty years, including the duration of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

Royal British Legion funded some independent research to look at three key topics, with including Gambling behaviours. It is important to note that findings relate specifically to over 3,000 participants of the phase 4 sample (serving and ex-serving Regulars) who were mostly male (90%), their mean age is 48 years and two-thirds (63%) were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Gambling has received much attention for its links to psychosocial harms and research has suggested varying rates of prevalence in relation to the UK Armed Forces community and military/veteran populations internationally.

Overview of findings

Around 50% had gambling in the past year (including buying a lottery ticket). We determined risk by using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) which includes questions about whether people have lost more money than they can afford to lose, borrowing money, being perceived as having a gambling problem and so forth.

·         Overall, 2% of the serving and ex-serving sample exhibited gambling behaviours consistent with experiencing problems.

·         A further 12% reported gambling consistent with low-moderate levels of risk.

·         Risk factors for gambling problems were related to experiencing mental health problems, anger, younger age, having been in the Army (v. RAF) and not as an Officer.

Research team: Laura Palmer, Aarya Meynon, Sofia Franchini, Rupa Bhundia, Deirdre MacManus, Marie-Louise Sharp, Sharon Stevelink

Funder: Royal British Legion