Gambling addiction statistics and gambling disorders
Available statistics on gambling addiction and on gambling disorders suggest that, at any point in time about 2-3% of the population will have some level of gambling problems and around 1% will qualify as “pathological’ gamblers. About 2/3 of those with pathological gambling problems will be men. These numbers underestimate the level of the problem because they represent current prevalence (how many have the problem right now?) rather than lifetime prevalence (how many have ever had such a problem?).
The Prevalence of Gambling Disorders
The seminal study of the lifetime prevalence of gambling disorders and gambling addiction statistics was conducted at Harvard Medical School by Shaffer, Hall and Vanderbilt, and involved a met-analysis of 119 separate studies conducted in the U.S. and Canada, involving over 122,000 people. Their data indicated that 3.85% of adults will have a gambling problem at some time in their life and that 1.6% of adults will have a gambling disorder that is severe and disabling enough to meet the DSM IV diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling (gambling addiction).
For adolescents the comparable figures are higher. 9.45% of adolescents will develop a gambling problem and 3.88 % will have a problem severe enough to qualify as pathological gambling. For college students, the lifetime prevalence is equal or greater than that of adolescents, with the rates being 9.28% and 4.67%, respectively.
Recent data suggest that the problem is worsening, especially among young people. Family First Aid reported a 600% increase in problem gambling among adolescents and college students between 2001 and 2005. In support of the idea that gambling disorders represent a more basic impulse control disorder, prison inmates have a prevalence of 15.01% for gambling problems and a 14.23% prevalence rate for pathological gambling.
Gambling addiction statistics show that pathological gambling in persons with alcohol dependency range from 13% to 33% and suicide rates are 5 times higher among pathological gamblers than in the general population.