Increasing numbers of women in the UK are seeking help for gambling related harms, research shows.

Support helplines have received record calls at the start of this year, with a third of callers being women.

Sky News reports that one in ten of those women are gambling to try and boost household income.

Lisa Patton, of the charity GamCare, said calls to its helpline in January this year were a 17% on 2022.

"It can be a combination of things, off the back of the World Cup, Christmas and obviously electricity bills and gas bills are increasing. Seventy five percent of our callers are actually citing financial difficulties. We find that people are bored, they're isolated, they are chasing losses.

"They might have had a big win previously. It's very accessible through the internet or on the phone and they have got bills to pay, they have got children to feed and it's trying to make that money up that they might have potentially lost previously".

Asked why there are more women callers, she said: "It can be partly escapism from daily life, it can be mental health issues that they're experiencing so that's where you can go away and you can gamble to escape those kinds of things that are going on in your daily life".

CARE is pushing for significant reform of gambling legislation in the UK, which currently fails to protect punters.

There is scant regulation of gambling advertising, and betting companies do little to help problem gamblers.

A government review of existing laws has been delayed several times but is expected around Easter.