There is not a lot of research surrounding links between neurodiversity and problem gambling, but there is little doubt among those with lived experience of gambling harm that neurodiverse people are uniquely vulnerable to gambling addiction, writes Steve Hoare, Player Protection Hub Editor.
“Regardless of whether there is research on this or not, there is definitely a correlation between neurodivergence and gambling addiction,” highlighted Chris Gilham, a trustee at Gambling Harm UK, to an audience of experts in neurodiversity at a webinar organised by the Gambling Lived Experience Network (GLEN).
Gilham lived with a crippling gambling addiction from the age of 30 to 36-years-old. The gambling compounded a dependency on alcohol that sent him to rock bottom before he sought help.
As someone who was never interested in gambling or exposed to it before he was 30, Gilham was baffled as to why he suddenly developed a gambling problem.
It took him three years of recovery, hard work an..