Heather Wardle

My Work in Gambling, Public Health, and Policy

My name is Heather Wardle, and I am a social scientist working in the field of public health, with a particular focus on gambling behaviour and gambling-related harm. For almost two decades, my work has centred on understanding how gambling affects individuals, families, and communities—not as an isolated behaviour, but as a product of social, economic, and regulatory environments.

I approach gambling harm as a population-level and structural issue, rather than an individual pathology. This perspective has shaped my research design, the questions I ask, and the policy conversations I engage in.

My early career and methodological foundations

My professional background is rooted in applied social research and large-scale population studies. Early in my career, I worked extensively with national health datasets, including the Health Survey for England and the British Gambling Prevalence Survey. These studies played a major role in shaping my understanding of how health-related behaviours should be measured, interpreted, and communicated responsibly.

Working with these datasets taught me two enduring lessons. First, methodology matters deeply: small design choices can have large implications for how prevalence and harm are understood. Second, evidence is most powerful when it is transparent, replicable, and relevant to real-world decision-making.

Leading gambling research at NatCen Social Research

From 2002 to 2015, I worked at NatCen Social Research, where I led the organisation’s programme of gambling research. This period was central to my development as a gambling researcher. NatCen’s role in producing independent, policy-relevant evidence placed me at the intersection of academia, government, and public debate.

During these years, my work contributed to national discussions about gambling participation, problem gambling prevalence, and the broader social distribution of harm. It also reinforced my view that gambling research must move beyond individual behaviour to consider availability, exposure, product design, and inequality.

My academic career at the University of Glasgow

I am currently a Professor at the University of Glasgow, where I am also Co-Director of Gambling Research Glasgow. My work here is interdisciplinary, drawing on public health, social policy, geography, and sociology.

At Glasgow, my research continues to focus on gambling as a public health issue, including how harms are distributed across populations, how digital environments shape risk, and how policy frameworks can either mitigate or amplify harm.

My academic and professional roles

Public health leadership and policy engagement

Alongside my academic work, I have been actively involved in policy-facing roles. I have provided written and oral evidence to UK Parliamentary committees and worked closely with regulators and public bodies.

I have served as Deputy Chair of the Advisory Board on Safer Gambling, advising on gambling policy and harm reduction. I have also worked as a Wellcome Humanities and Social Science Research Fellow, based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where my work focused on defining and conceptualising gambling-related harms in ways that are meaningful for policy and practice.

I do not provide research or consultancy services to the gambling industry. Maintaining independence has always been central to my work.

Policy, advisory, and public health roles

The Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling

One of the most significant projects I have been involved in is The Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling, which I co-chaired. The Commission brought together researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and people with lived experience to examine gambling harms through a comprehensive public health lens.

Our aim was to move the conversation beyond narrow definitions of “problem gambling” and to demonstrate how harms are embedded in systems of availability, marketing, and digital infrastructure. The Commission’s work has contributed to reframing gambling as a serious public health issue requiring structural intervention.

Research on digital gambling and gaming intersections

My first book, Games Without Frontiers? Socio-historical Perspectives at the Gaming/Gambling Intersection, explores how gaming and gambling have increasingly converged, particularly in digital environments. In this work, I examine how monetisation systems, reward mechanics, and platform design can normalise gambling-like behaviours, especially among younger audiences.

Understanding this convergence is essential if we are to anticipate future risks rather than simply respond to harms after they emerge.

Selected publications and major outputs

Reflections on my work

Across my career, my central concern has been ensuring that gambling research contributes to harm minimisation, policy accountability, and public understanding. Gambling is a legal and socially embedded activity, but its harms are not inevitable. They are shaped by choices—commercial, regulatory, and political.

My work has aimed to make those choices visible.

Reflections on Evidence, Power, and the Future of Gambling Policy

As my work has progressed, I have become increasingly concerned not only with what evidence we produce about gambling, but how that evidence is used, interpreted, and sometimes ignored. Research does not exist in a vacuum. It sits within political, commercial, and regulatory systems that shape which findings gain traction and which are sidelined.

One of the recurring challenges in gambling research is the imbalance of power between public health evidence and commercial interests. Gambling products are increasingly complex, digitally mediated, and aggressively marketed. Yet the burden of proof often falls on researchers to demonstrate harm beyond doubt, while structural risks are treated as acceptable or unavoidable. From my perspective, this asymmetry has slowed meaningful reform.

I have also been struck by how narrow definitions of harm can constrain policy responses. Focusing exclusively on clinical thresholds or individual diagnoses risks overlooking a much wider set of harms—financial stress, relationship breakdown, mental distress, and reduced wellbeing—that affect many more people. My work has therefore consistently argued for broader harm frameworks that reflect lived experience and social impact, not just diagnostic categories.

Engagement with policymakers and regulators has been an important part of my role. I see research as most valuable when it informs real-world decisions, even when those conversations are difficult. Providing evidence to parliamentary inquiries, advisory boards, and public commissions has reinforced my belief that independence and transparency are essential. Credibility is fragile in this field, and once trust is lost, it is difficult to regain.

Looking ahead, I believe the future of gambling research must be proactive rather than reactive. Too often, regulation follows harm rather than anticipating it. Emerging technologies, platform-based gambling, and hybrid gaming-gambling products demand earlier scrutiny and stronger safeguards. Research must evolve quickly enough to keep pace with these developments, without sacrificing methodological rigour.

I am also increasingly convinced that gambling should be considered alongside other commercial determinants of health. Like alcohol, tobacco, and ultra-processed foods, gambling operates within systems designed to maximise consumption. Understanding those systems is critical if we are serious about prevention rather than mitigation alone.

Ultimately, my aim has never been to argue that gambling should not exist. Instead, I have sought to contribute evidence that helps societies make informed choices about how gambling is structured, regulated, and governed. If my work has achieved anything, I hope it has helped shift the conversation toward greater accountability, fairness, and public health responsibility.