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Posted: 1.6.2026
Congrats to George Zacharopoulous who has been awarded funding from Swansea University’s Research Wales Innovation Fund (RWIF) from Medr for a project entitled, 'Evaluating Neurotechnological Approaches to Reducing Harmful Gambling: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study'.
Posted: 22.5.2026
GREAT Co-Director, Dr Martyn Quigley, and GREAT Research Assistant, Dr Anthony Brennan, recently visited colleagues at the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge to present their work from the GamPIT project.
Evaluating the Impact of Environmental Gambling Cues Using Pavlovian–Instrumental Transfer (PIT)
Reward-related cues, such as slot machine imagery or celebratory gambling advertisements, are ubiquitous in gambling environments and may reinforce gambling behaviour. Yet, their impact on behaviour has been understudied using robust translational paradigms. The Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm allows empirical assessment of how cues previously associated with rewards influence behaviour. In this study, we developed an online gambling PIT task (“GamPIT”) to examine whether sensitivity to reward-related cues is associated with gambling severity. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 (N = 32, individuals without a history of gambling) and Study 2 (N = 128, individuals with a history of gambling) both used gambling-specific cues (e.g., slot machine imagery, gambling advertisements) during a PIT task, alongside validated psychological measures of gambling-related behaviour. Across both studies, we observed a robust PIT effect, indicating increased responding in the presence of reward cues. This effect was consistent regardless of gambling harm severity, suggesting that cue-driven responding is a general phenomenon not specific to individuals with elevated gambling risk. These findings clarify the influence of reward-related cues and inform translational targets for intervention.
Posted: 14.5.2026
GREAT Centre now part of UK’s largest independent gambling harms research centre: Click here to read the press release.
Posted: 23.2.2026
Dr Jamie Torrance, Co-Director of the GREAT Centre, has commenced his prestigious UKRI/DCMS Policy Fellowship. Jamie’s Fellowship will explore the impact of new forms of gambling advertising and we’re so delighted for him! Watch this space for more updates as his Fellowship progresses
Posted: 8.12.2026
Delighted to see that our recent article in BJPsych Open, ‘Gambling, suicide and mental health treatment utilisation in Wales: case–control, whole-population-based study‘ was the RCPsych Article of the Month for December 2025. A blog posting about the article can be viewed here.
Posted: 27.11.2025
Delighted to share that GREAT Centre Co-Director, Dr Jamie Torrance, has been awarded both a Policy Fellowship from DCMS/UKRI and a Rapid Evidence Review from UKRI for his work on gambling marketing. The projects commence in early 2026. Well done, Jamie!
Posted: 30.10.2025
Our work on gambling in the UK Armed Forces, conducted under the auspices of the Centre for Military Gambling Research, was featured in the BBC Radio 4 documentary File on Four programme and trailed widely across the BBC. Follow the links below for more details.
File on Four
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ld68
BBC website
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx4nl95v9zo?app-referrer=deep-link
BBC Breakfast TV (from 19:40)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002lg4w/breakfast-28102025
BBC Spotlight TV (from 6:04)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ljb8
Posted: 21.05.2025
Findings from the Veterans’ Habit Study were shared by Adanma Ekenna and Dana Dekel at the Forces in Mind Trust Research Conference in London in May 2025.
Posted: 21.05.2025
Read the Stakeholder Report (English) for the GREAT Network Wales, 2020-2025 here. The GREAT Network Wales was funded by Welsh Government through Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW). The views expressed are those of the author/s and not necessarily those of HCRW or Welsh Government. As you can see, the GREAT Network Wales was a great return on investment and gave rise to the GREAT Centre!
Posted: 11.03.2025
Read the article in The Conversation by Dr Jamie Torrance and Dr Philip Newall (University of Bristol) on “How to outwit gambling adverts by ‘inoculating’ people against them” based on their latest research in Addiction.
Posted: 11.03.2025
Dr Alice Hoon was featured in a documentary aired on S4C about gambling harm in Wales. It includes a VR simulated horse race and discussion of our 2014 NeuroImage fMRI/MEG findings on the near-miss effect. Watch it back here.
Posted: 11.03.2025
The GREAT Centre has shared insights from the 2024 Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) with a specific focus on trends in past-year gambling in Wales. We compiled these materials for stakeholders, policymakers, and other users and have provided language guidance on how they are best used and reported. The materials, available bilingually in both slide-deck and PDF formats, provide crucial insights into gambling participation rates, gambling behaviours, and specific to Wales. Access the toolkit, in bilingual versions, here.
Posted: 11.03.2025
Several members of the Centre for Military Gambling Research (MilGAM) attended the annual convention of the International Center for Responsible Gaming (ICRG) in Las Vegas, October 2024 and presented their work. Read all about it here.
Posted: 21.02.2025
The SAGE Project results were shared at a knowledge exchange event hosted by MILGAM in Swansea in September 2024. The event featured presentations from the research team, colleagues from Defence Medical Services, and those with lived experience of gambling harm.
Posted: 21.02.2025
Simon was interviewed for this piece in The Big Issue about the Tory general election betting scandal.
Posted: 21.02.2025
It was great to welcome Dr Bryan Singer, Director of the Singer Lab, University of Sussex to Swansea for a talk on pre-clinical modelling of vulnerability to drug and behavioural addictions. Looking forward to many more fruitful collaborations on this important translational topic!
Posted: 21.02.2025
Simon was interviewed by Dr Jon Sutton, Editor of The Psychologist. It was quite a rambling chat, from his introduction to behaviourism to his current work in gambling. Read it here.
Posted: 21.02.2025
Colleagues presenting their work at CAGR 2023, King’s College London.
Posted: 21.02.2025
The GREAT Centre contributed to this important gambling health needs assessment for Wales just published by Public Health Wales.