EPIC present findings at major conference in Las Vegas

EPIC Risk Management presented their findings on gambling and experiences with spending money in console games among UK state school children to an influential audience of academics, policymakers, treatment providers and educators at the 18th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking in Las Vegas.

The prestigious event allowed EPIC’s research manager Anca-Maria Gherghel to report on the insight we have gained from our visits to hundreds of UK schools each year, which facilitated key discussions and debates around the prevalence of gambling and gaming among school-age children in the UK and globally.

There were several key themes of the conference, attended by delegates from the UK, Europe and the US, including problem gambling and vulnerable communities, the use of data for responsible gambling, collaboration among problem gambling stakeholders, gamblers’ behaviours and many more.

Explaining the premise behind the appearance in Nevada, Gherghel – who was accompanied at the conference by EPIC’s director of social impact, Paul Findlay MBE – outlined:

“The International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking is always a major annual event for those in the sphere of influence to prevent gambling-related harm, so we were pleased to be able to share our findings based on our research data on gambling and spending money in games amongst students from UK schools.

“Problem gambling amongst young people has become a public health concern and in recent years, gambling has been associated with spending money in games. Therefore, there is need for research to show the extent of the impact they can have on young people and to create policies to protect them.

“We received some good questions which opened up the room for discussion after the presentation. Researchers from around the world were discussing the issues regarding loot boxes and young people and the need for policies around them.

“Professors from some of the most prestigious universities around the world engaged with us off the back of our presentation, looking at ways in which we can enhance further research or work on delivery with students at those institutions, which will help to protect future generations from gambling-related harm.

“This event has shown that there is clearly scope to expand this work in future and work with other like-minded organisations to further our aspiration of taking the harm out of gambling.”