Gambling harm rarely begins with a crisis. It begins inside things that feel normal. Raffles at school. Bingo nights. Sports tipping. Workplace sweepstakes. Fundraisers run “for a good cause.” By the time gambling causes harm, it already feels like something that was always there. 

For a long time, gambling harm support has been shaped primarily through clinical and public health responses. These remain essential. However, they do not always reflect how gambling harm is experienced, nor do they always reach people early enough. That is why the Gambling Harm Peer Workforce project was established. 

People who experience gambling harm don’t always see gambling as the problem, at least not at the beginning. Some describe it as the answer or the thing that worked, for a while. This can sound like denial or minimisation. From lived experience, it isn’t—it’s information.

Gambling harm has long sat in the background, not because the harm is small, but because it is often unseen. Unlike other health issues, gambling harm is usually private. It happens quietly, behind closed doors, and often carries a deep sense of shame. By the time harm becomes visible, it is often already well advanced. 

Gambling harm is sometimes described as affecting a small percentage of the people who gamble. But that framing misses a fundamental truth: Harm is never within one person alone. The impacts ripple outward quietly, often unnoticed, and unnamed.