Gambling and adult safeguarding: connections and evidence
| Published date | 11 December 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-03-2017-0014 |
| Date | 11 December 2017 |
| Pages | 333-344 |
| Author | Jill Manthorpe,Stephanie Bramley,Caroline Norrie |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Adult protection,Safeguarding,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Abuse |
Gambling and adult safeguarding:
connections and evidence
Jill Manthorpe, Stephanie Bramley and Caroline Norrie
Abstract
Purpose –Opportunities to gamble have boomed in the UK in recent years, since the passing of the
Gambling Act 2005. The implications of this for adults with care and support needs and for safeguarding
services have not been greatly investigated. The purpose of this paper is to address the interface of how
gambling affects adults with care and support needs in England and adult safeguarding.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper reports on the scoping review which focussed on adults with
care and support needs and gambling-related harm. It also included literature on perpetrators who exploit
adults with care and support needs to fund their own or others’gambling. The overall aims of this scoping
review were to explore what is known about gambling-related harm affecting adults with care and support
needs, the gaps in the evidence base, and specifically to refine the interview questions for the wider study.
Findings –There is some evidence that adults with care and support needs experience or are at risk of
gambling-related harm. There is, however, lack of data from safeguarding services about this affecting adults
at risk and safeguarding practice and systems. A public health approach to gambling is advocated by some,
as well as effective regulation and support for people who have problems with their own or others’gambling.
Originality/value –Industry operators, practitioners, and policymakers are increasingly paying attention to
gambling-related harm but there is a lack of focus on adults with care and support needs or implications for
adult safeguarding.
Keywords Care, Pathological gambling, Problem gambling, Scoping review, Adult safeguarding, Gambling,
Vulnerable, Adults at risk, Gambling addiction, Gambling-related harm
Paper type Literature review
Background
This paper reports and discusses findings of a scoping review that was the preliminary stage of a
wider research project focusing on gambling-related harm and adult safeguarding. The review
addresses what is known and not known about adults at risk and gambling-related harm in the
context of adult safeguarding. The review also covered gambling-related harm affecting
individuals either through their own behaviour or the consequences of the actions of other people
who caused harm to adults at risk in the context of their own or others’gambling.
In this paper, we use, where appropriate, the term “vulnerable adult”to refer to people at
particular risk of gambling-related harm since this is the term used in the Gambling Act 2005.
In adult safeguarding in England the more recently coined term “adult at risk”, as used in the Care
Act 2014, is defined as any person aged 18 years and over who:
■has needs for care and support (whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs);
■is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect; and
■as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect
or the risk of it (s 42 (1) Care Act, 2014).
There are clear overlaps between these terms but also differences –such as the Gambling Act’s
inclusion of children as a vulnerable group. However, this sets the scene for our review which aimed
to explore the interconnections between the evidence base on gambling and adult safeguarding.
Received 29 March 2017
Revised 8 June 2017
12 July 2017
Accepted 31 August 2017
This study is funded by Ridgeway
Information Limited –a King’s
College London spin-out
company. The views expressed in
this paper are those of the authors
alone and should not be
interpreted as those of the
funders.
Jill Manthorpe is a Professor,
Stephanie Bramley is a
Research Associate and
Caroline Norrie is a Research
Fellow, all at the Social Care
Workforce Research Unit,
King’s College London,
London, UK.
DOI 10.1108/JAP-03-2017-0014 VOL. 19 NO. 6 2017, pp. 333-344, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1466-8203
j
THE JOURNAL OF ADULT PROTECTION
j
PAG E 33 3
To continue reading
Request your trial