Do It For Her: a first-of-its-kind short drama

Gambling Harm UK: We're pleased to share ‘Do It For Her’ a first-of-its-kind short drama reflecting on gambling harms in diverse communities experienced by a student and loved ones

The short film involved a lived experience inspired and an evidence-based approach specifically throughGambling Harm UK’s research report that was also the first of its type to raise awareness on the disproportionate harms in ethnic minority communities.

'Do It For Her' was produced by Fully Focussed/Million Youth Media, directed by Shehroze Khan, written by Mohammedally Shushtari, and featured Fady Elsayed as the lead actor! The film was co-commissioned as part of the novel ‘Preventing Gambling Harms in Diverse Communities’ alongside YGAM and Red Card Gambling Support Project.

The whole team at Gambling Harm UK are extremely proud to have helped bring about a hard-hitting and impactful short film bringing to a life a story that is prevalent but rarely seen or heard about. Kishan Patel (Chair of the Board of Trustees at Gambling Harm UK) first reached out to Fully Focussed on the 13th of February 2021, and following a competitive tender process and some 299 days later, 'Do It For Her' premiered in full for the world to see for free on YouTube on the 9th of December 2021.

How did the short film incorporate an evidence-based and lived-experience led approach?

A diverse range of topic experts and individuals with lived experience helped guide the film-making process and as a result the film intelligently and creatively reflects a wide range of important discussion points. For example:

Factors towards gambling:

• Industry inducements:

  • Free bets and game design: electronic gaming machines and online casino products have structural characteristics that affect human decision-making and behaviours, and therefore addiction potential, such as free bet offers, high event frequencies, random ratio reinforcement schedules, near misses, losses appearing as wins, multiline betting, and exaggerated audible and visual reinforcements

  • Advertising: the industry spends an estimated £1.6bn on advertising in Great Britain with 80% of that or £1.2bn spent on online advertising, advertising is particularly effective at getting younger individuals to gamble when they otherwise were not going to, 61% of 18-24 year olds spent money on gambling after seeing a gambling ad or marketing when they were otherwise not planning to

  • Association and exposure through sports: Boxing has been estimated to have the highest frequency of gambling sponsorship references in sports per broadcast minute at 4.70 gambling sponsorship references per minute

Risk factors:

• Students/young people (the prevalence of gambling harm is expected to be highest among 16-24 year olds and according to the last gambling prevalence study, BGPS 2010, 17.5% of (or almost 1 in 5) 16-24 year olds suffered significant gambling harm from their gambling in the past year

• Ethnic minority backgrounds: individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to gamble, more likely to live in areas disproportionately concentrated with betting venues, and between 3-5x more likely to suffer gambling disorder than individuals from white ethnic backgrounds

• Low mental well-being status: individuals with a low Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing score have been estimated to be 7.65x more likely to suffer gambling disorder harm

Types of gambling harm shown in 'Do It For Her':

The film demonstrates the development and escalation of harms across all the known domains of gambling harm (taxonomy of harms) for the individual who gambles and the loved ones around that individual including:

• financial

• relationship

• crime

• health/psychological

• education and work

• cultural

The potential for recovery by breaking stigmas and through conversation:

'Do It For Her' also aims to empower young people to talk about their experiences of gambling harm to someone they can trust, whether that be a professional or a trusted loved one. Additionally, the film demonstrates how someone may effectively help someone else if their behaviour worries them.

We are extremely grateful to have worked with such a talented and dedicated team - thank you to all those involved! With an extra special thanks to all cast and crew involved and individuals with lived experience who helped guide the creative process.