GPs and other healthcare professionals should ask patients about gambling during routine checkups and ensure access to early effective help for those at high risk of gambling harms, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has said in its first clinical guidance on dealing with harms related to gambling.1

NICE said its recommendations could lead to effective early identification and treatment that may reduce the number of people experiencing longer term or more serious harm from gambling, saving money for the NHS and the criminal justice system. Experts said that the guidance would bring a unified approach to tackling problems that wreck many people’s health, finances, and relationships and are estimated to be linked to hundreds of suicides a year.

Liz Ritchie, who cofounded the charity Gambling with Lives with her husband, Charles, after the gambling related suicide of their …