IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon has written for The Critic highlighting a lack of evidence for common claims that gambling is a significant cause of suicides.

Christopher wrote:

“There is one gambling-related suicide in the UK every day. There are up to 496 gambling-related suicides a year. Ten per cent of all the suicides in England are caused by gambling. 

“These statistics, and other iterations of them, have become mantras for the anti-gambling lobby since January 2023 when the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) published a report claiming that there are ‘between 117 and 496 suicides associated with problem gambling’ in England.

“It turns out that these figures are based on nothing. They are a will o’ the wisp. A mirage. They exist only on a laptop in Whitehall. They are worthless.”

Read Christopher’s full piece here to learn more.