Coronavirus: Gambling addiction treatments paused as staff redeployed

In July 2020 the BBC Shared Data Unit reported treatments for dozens of people with gambling addictions across Great Britain were paused as NHS staff were redeployed due to coronavirus.

Ex-gambling addict Bray Ash, who once lost his entire student loan in a day, said the return of professional sport left people at risk.

BBC research revealed some NHS staff who helped people with addiction were moved to other roles during the pandemic.

NHS trusts said they had to redeploy staff to "where the need was greatest".

It came after The BBC Shared Data Unit reported in May 2020 that search interest in online casinos had hit an all-time high in the UK since lockdown began. Search interest had risen again by July 2020.

The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to news organisations across the media industry, as part of a partnership between the BBC and the News Media Association. Stories generated by the partnership included:

• York: The Press: Delays with gambling help in York and North Yorkshire 30 July 2020

Get the data

• FOI responses covering Great Britain and UK-wide Google Trends data

Background and briefing

• A full briefing pack on the story can be found here

Visualisation

• Line chart: All-time search interest in the topic "Casinos" in the UK from Google Trends

Related repos

You can find all coronavirus-related stories by the BBC data units tagged 'coronavirus' here