Save the date for our energetic and inspiring public lecture “Tackling the World-Wide Gambling Epidemic. What Can We Learn from Africa?”

10 people standing side-by-side for a group image. The background shows a trees in front of a building.

Pan-African Research Network - Kenya Workshop May 2025

2 July 2025

This will be a free, in-person public lecture being held in the Wills Memorial Building at the University of Bristol, on Wednesday 15th October 2025 from 18.00 to 19.30. Open to Everyone in the City and Far Beyond.

Tackling the World-Wide Gambling Epidemic. What Can We Learn from Africa?

The global gambling industry is worth around $580bn – that’s bigger than the GDP of 86% of countries on our planet.

But hundreds of millions of the world’s citizens are harmed by gambling through financial ruin, relationship breakdown, domestic violence, crime, and serious physical and mental health problems, including suicide. Gambling is global public health issue.

The global availability of smartphones has propelled betting and gambling into a 24/7 activity across every time zone. Over the past decade, much of this activity has focused on football betting, as premier club matches become major global broadcast phenomena.

The Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research at University of Bristol funds innovative, interdisciplinary research across the globe to raise awareness, enhance consumer protection and inform treatment of gambling harms. The Hub has funded amazing projects in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Namibia and we have lots to learn from these researchers.

The evening will start with a vibrant music video co-created and produced with young people affected by gambling harms in Uganda. Dr Branco Sekalegga will talk about how the video was made and the effects it has had on youth communities.

A panel discussion will follow, chaired by Professor Isabella Aboderin, co-facilitator of the ground-breaking Africa Charter that aims to transform the power relationship in UK-Africa research.

Further information will be posted on our events page about registration, programme and speakers over the coming weeks.

Further information

This event is kindly sponsored by Bristol Collegiate Research Society. 

About the Bristol Collegiate Research Society 

The Bristol Collegiate Research Society is a charity committed to supporting an annual academic research symposium in the University of Bristol.  The Society was founded in 1899 by a group of Bristol citizens who wished to assist University College Bristol gain a Royal Charter and become the University of Bristol. 