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Although it has long been known that problem
drinkers may also be problem gamblers, a new study shows an
especially strong link. The researchers found that US adults
who have a current dependency on alcohol are 23
times more likely to have a current gambling problem
than those who did not drink.
Moreover,
survey respondents with a higher socioeconomic status who
had a drinking problem were even more likely to have a gambling
problem as well.
If you're in trouble with alcohol, the
odds you're also in trouble with gambling increase enormously.
Most of that correlation is that problem behaviors tend to
cluster in the same people.
Gambling is more common among lower socioeconomic
people, blacks and Hispanics, than among whites. That's not
true of alcohol and drug pathology necessarily. It's a demographic
pattern that's unique to gambling.
The rate of current gambling pathology
was seven to eight times as high among black and Hispanic
men and women compared with white men and women.
The report also suggested there may be
a slight increase in the prevalence of pathological gambling
across the United States. It's becoming a more interesting
and important issue because of the expansion of legal gambling
opportunities.
Overall, more than 80% of men and women
reported gambling in the past year.
The survey found the rate of Americans
who were currently pathological gamblers to be closer to 1%
to 2%, while around 5% were judged to currently be problem
gamblers, a slightly looser definition. The lifetime prevalence
of problem gambling was estimated to be from 4.8% to 11.5%.
Journal
of Studies of Alcohol 2001;62:706-712
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