GRIN: A Transatlantic Model for Embedding Lived Experience Peer Specialists in Safer Gambling Systems

Session Title

Treatment: Digital & Intervention Design

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation

Start Date

27-5-2026 12:00 AM

Abstract

GRIN (Gambling Recovery in Networks), a joint initiative of the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health and Betknowmore UK, represents a pioneering approach to integrating lived experience into safer gambling infrastructure. This presentation examines the systematic recruitment, training, and deployment of individuals with lived experience of gambling harms into formal roles within gambling harm reduction systems across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. The GRIN model encompasses two core components: Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAPs), which provide strategic guidance to operators, regulators, and treatment providers; and Peer Specialists, who deliver direct support through voluntary self-exclusion programs, helplines, and treatment pathways. GRIN has prioritized diversity in recruitment, engaging individuals from veteran, senior, global majority, LGBTQ+, and Native American communities. This presentation will share learnings on implementation, safeguarding protocols, early outcome data, and lessons learned from multi-jurisdictional deployment. Presenters will share practical tools for adapting the GRIN model to diverse regulatory and cultural contexts and discuss how cross-sector collaboration between treatment providers, operators, and regulatory bodies can enhance player health outcomes.

Author Bios

Anna is Director of Operations and Finance at Betknowmore UK, a national charity led by those with lived gambling harm experience. Through GRIN -a partnership with the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health - peer specialists experienced in peer support, self-exclusion follow-up, and recovery programs advise industry, lotteries, and public agencies on integrating lived experience into safer gambling strategies across diverse ethnocultural communities in North America, the UK, and Europe.

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May 27th, 12:00 AM

GRIN: A Transatlantic Model for Embedding Lived Experience Peer Specialists in Safer Gambling Systems

GRIN (Gambling Recovery in Networks), a joint initiative of the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health and Betknowmore UK, represents a pioneering approach to integrating lived experience into safer gambling infrastructure. This presentation examines the systematic recruitment, training, and deployment of individuals with lived experience of gambling harms into formal roles within gambling harm reduction systems across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. The GRIN model encompasses two core components: Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAPs), which provide strategic guidance to operators, regulators, and treatment providers; and Peer Specialists, who deliver direct support through voluntary self-exclusion programs, helplines, and treatment pathways. GRIN has prioritized diversity in recruitment, engaging individuals from veteran, senior, global majority, LGBTQ+, and Native American communities. This presentation will share learnings on implementation, safeguarding protocols, early outcome data, and lessons learned from multi-jurisdictional deployment. Presenters will share practical tools for adapting the GRIN model to diverse regulatory and cultural contexts and discuss how cross-sector collaboration between treatment providers, operators, and regulatory bodies can enhance player health outcomes.