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