As we mark International Gambling Harms Awareness Day, it is important to recognise that while gambling itself has changed dramatically, gambling harm has remained largely hidden. What has changed is how quickly harm can develop, how easily it can be concealed, and how seamlessly gambling now fits into everyday life.
Gambling is often described as a hidden addiction. Unlike substance use, there are rarely obvious physical signs that someone is losing control. People can continue working, caring for families, and appearing to cope on the outside, while experiencing significant distress, shame, and financial harm beneath the surface. This has always been true but in today’s gambling environment, it is more pronounced than ever.
When Gambling Was Visible and Time-Limited
Historically, gambling took place in specific locations and at specific times. Horse and dog racing events, betting shops, fruit machines, bingo halls, pubs, and physical casinos were the most common forms. Gambling was public, often social, and rooted in environments that were smoke-filled betting shops, noisy arcades, and busy casinos.
It involved cash, travel, queues, and opening hours that created natural pauses. Losses were tangible, and patterns of harm were more likely to be noticed by others. While gambling harm certainly existed, it was harder to conceal completely. Gambling functioned as a hidden addiction even then, but its impact was more likely to surface in visible ways.
From Public Spaces to Private Screens
As footfall on the high street declined, betting companies adapted quickly. Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) became central to the survival of betting shops.
Between races, customers were drawn to machines that offered rapid play and the illusion of recouping losses quickly. Over time, many became less engaged with racing itself and increasingly absorbed in FOBTs, where losses could escalate at speed.
FOBTs became widely known as “the crack cocaine of gambling”, capturing the intensity and highly reinforcing nature of play. In my work, clients reported losing £2,000 to £5,000 in a single week on these machines alone. At the time, these figures were shocking.
Today, they are eclipsed with the move to online where losses are higher with reports of £20,000 to £30,000 and in one case £100,000 through spread betting and cryptocurrency gambling are now being reported. What is striking is not only the scale of these losses, but the speed. Amounts that might once have accumulated over years can now disappear in days, weeks or months.
Gambling Reshaped Around Everyday Life
As gambling migrated to online, the design principles underpinning FOBTs speed, continuous play, and immersion were not abandoned, but amplified.
Online gambling no longer requires leaving the house or being seen. It can happen between school drop-offs and pick-ups, late at night after children are asleep, or quietly on a phone while sitting in the same room as family members.
Because gambling blends so easily into ordinary life, harm often develops gradually and unnoticed. Losses accumulate digitally. Time passes without clear markers. Shame grows quietly. In this context, gambling harm becomes even easier to hide both from others and from oneself.
New Digital Frontiers
Alongside mainstream online gambling, newer digital forms continue to emerge. Cryptocurrency gambling, esports betting, fantasy gaming, and in-game purchases are increasingly common entry points, particularly for younger people.
These platforms are often marketed as social, skill-based, and community-driven. They emphasise fun, competition, and belonging rather than risk or loss, blurring the boundaries between gaming, entertainment, and gambling.
For many, these activities do not initially feel like gambling at all. Yet over time, familiar patterns emerge loss of control, secrecy, financial strain, and emotional distress. What changes is not the nature of harm, but the form it takes.
Thirty Years On: A Personal Reflection
Thirty years on from when I gambled, one of the greatest challenges is keeping pace with how gambling continues to evolve. It is often clients who introduce new and emerging forms of gambling to me such as cryptocurrency platforms, esports betting and fantasy gaming.
These activities are rarely experienced as risky at first. They are framed as entertainment, investment, or community. Yet over time, familiar dynamics appear similar to what I went through increasing preoccupation, mounting losses, secrecy, and distress. I’m having to spend more time exploring the new types of gambling and how gambling environments have changed.
Safeguards, Regulation, and Their Limits
It is important to recognise that gambling environments have also changed in ways intended to reduce harm. Many licensed gambling companies are now required to offer safeguarding tools and sources of support, including spending limits, time-out options, reminders about how long someone has been playing, and clear signposting to helplines and specialist services. These measures are overseen by the Gambling Commission and represent genuine efforts to reduce harm.
At the same time, safeguards often rely on individuals recognising that gambling has become a problem and feeling able to act on that awareness. Shame, secrecy, and the gradual nature of gambling harm can make this difficult. In addition, not all gambling takes place within regulated spaces. Some online platforms particularly those involving cryptocurrency operate with far fewer safeguards or none at all, leaving people more vulnerable to rapid and hidden harm.
Why Gambling Harm Remains Hidden
What has changed is not human vulnerability, but the sophistication of gambling environments. Modern gambling is designed to reduce pauses, remove friction, and fit around people’s routines and emotional states.
As gambling has moved from visible public spaces into private digital ones, harm can be harder to detect, and more likely to surface only at crisis point. Recognising gambling harm as a hidden addiction both historically and today is essential if awareness is to lead to meaningful prevention and support.
A Hopeful Closing: Compassion, Recovery, and Support
While gambling harm can leave deep and lasting marks, it does not have to define a life. Recovery is possible. With support, honesty, and compassion both from others and towards ourselves people can rebuild meaning, connection, and purpose.
Many people benefit from working with psychotherapists experienced in compulsive gambling and behavioural addictions. Specialist services also play a vital role, including GamCare, the National Gambling Clinic, BetKnowMore UK, NECA Gambling, and Gordon Moody.
International Gambling Harms Awareness Day is not about blame or judgement. It is about recognising harm sooner, responding with understanding, and creating space for conversations that reduce shame so that what has long remained hidden no longer has to stay that way.
