Conceptualising Irish women’s journeys in gambling, experiencing gambling harm, and pathways to recovery

Historically, women's experiences of gambling and gambling-related harm have been overlooked (Mark & Lesieur, 1992; Crisp et al., 2004). This neglect perpetuates gendered stereotypes (Wardle & Laidler, 2023) and generates ineffective harm reduction approaches for women. However, growing recognition of this gap has led to calls for research on gendered views of gambling harm (Wardle & Laidler, 2023; Kairouz et al., 2023; Fillion et al., 2024). Currently significant gaps remain, such as the need for gendered approaches in gambling research that examine women's and men's experiences separately (McCarthy et al., 2019; Wardle & Laidler, 2023) rather than assuming women’s gambling harm mirrors that of men (Mark & Lesieur, 1992; Wardle, 2015; Fillion et al., 2024). Moreover, we cannot assume evidence to date are culturally or geographically homogenous across the island of Ireland.
This qualitative study contributes to international research on women’s experiences of gambling harm by exploring their lived experiences from addiction to recovery.
Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 women in recovery from gambling addictions across the island of Ireland. Participants were recruited through purposive, convenience, and snowball sampling and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Through a constructivist grounded theoretical approach, findings map nine key stages in Irish women’s gambling journeys: normalisation, pathways and preferences, motivations, triggers, lived experiences of addiction, barriers to help-seeking, help-seeking, recovery, and relapse. This framework demonstrates the intricate nature of addictions for Irish women and provides a foundation for public health initiatives aimed at reducing gambling-related harm throughout the region.