General practitioners and other healthcare professionals will ask ­millions of patients about their gambling habits at health checks under new medical guidance.

Healthcare professionals should consider asking people about gambling when discussing smoking and alcohol during GP appointments, guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) have ­recommended.

Patients seeking help for depression and anxiety, as well as young people leaving home for the first time, will also be asked about their gambling habits.

One in 40 British adults say they gamble problematically and medical experts have said the effects on people’s lives are ­“massive” and “devastating”. Another 12 per cent of the people who responded to the 2023 Gambling ­Survey for Great Britain appeared to ­gamble in ways that put them