Overall Gambling Behaviors and Gambling Treatment Needs Among a Statewide Sample of Drug Treatment Clients in Ohio

Abstract

Casino gambling in Ohio became available for the first time in May 2012. This gambling expansion led the Ohio substance abuse monitoring (OSAM) Network, Ohio's drug abuse surveillance system that collects drug trend data on an ongoing basis, to amend its protocol in June 2011 to include collection of data related to problem and pathological gambling to inform current treatment and prevention needs. OSAM collected gambling data from July 2011 to June 2012 via focus group interviews of 714 drug users recruited from alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment programs throughout Ohio. Participants who reported gambling during the past 6 months (N = 412) completed the South Oaks gambling screen. This study found a prevalence estimate of 12.1 % for probable pathological gambling among its statewide sample. Sizeable proportions of participants reported that they gambled more when using AOD (23.5 %) and used more AOD when gambling (19.4 %). A majority of study participants (59.2 %) reported participation in at least one type of gambling during the past 6 months, and of those participants, only 22.2 % reported ever having been asked about gambling while receiving AOD treatment services, with just 12.5 % reporting ever having had gambling treatment services offered to them. Men were 4.1 times more likely to screen positive for probable pathological gambling than women; non-Whites were 61.0 % more likely to screen positive than Whites. Findings presented in this report have the potential to help shape and strengthen problem and pathological gambling prevention and treatment measures in Ohio.

<p>Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting</p>

“…Based on the present and previous findings, it may be reasonable to hypothesize that gender aspects of gambling change when moving from general population, where problem gambling is more common in men than in women, [4][5][6][7][8][9] into high-risk gamblers. In addition, although in a small sample, in the sub-group studied here with the highest PGSI scores (problem gamblers), differences between women and men were few, again suggesting that severity in women approaches that of men when moving from the general population into more clinical samples.…”

“…Research on problem gambling and gambling disorder traditionally has addressed men more than women, whereas in recent years, authors have argued that more research in female gamblers is needed, and that gendered preventive and intervention efforts in gambling may require particular intervention. [1][2][3] Problem gambling, including the diagnostic construct of gambling disorder, typically has been shown to be markedly more common in men than in women, 4 both in the general population [5][6][7][8][9] and in the clinical setting. [10][11][12][13] In recent years, however, female gambling has been increasing, such that male and female participation in gambling may be comparable in some contexts.…”

“…(8) (Continued)Håkansson and Widinghoff Dovepress submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com DovePress Psychology Research and Behavior Management 2020:13…”

Problem gambling and gaming in elite athletes

“…However, although the absolute numbers are low, the prevalence gap between males and females in the present study appears to be particularly large compared to other cohorts assessed for problem gambling, and other and larger studies should study whether this large gender difference in athletes can be confirmed. Treatment-seeking individuals with gambling disorder in the present setting demonstrate a 4-to-1 male/female ratio ( Håkansson et al, 2017 ), and clear differences in the general population prevalence have been seen ( Blanco et al, 2006 ; Ekholm et al, 2014 ; Husky et al, 2015 ; Sherba and Martt, 2015 ), with the prevalence among men being around three times higher than in women ( Blanco et al, 2006 ; Husky et al, 2015 ; Sherba and Martt, 2015 ). Indeed, young males have been described as a particular risk group with respect to problem gambling ( Götestam and Johansson, 2003 ), also corresponding to the age groups in which most elite athletes are active, and likewise, women are known to have a later onset of gambling than men do, possibly contributing to the large difference in prevalence in younger adults ( Diez et al, 2014 ; Grant et al, 2012 ; Grant and Kim, 2002 ; Tavares et al, 2001 ).…”

Primary and Secondary Diagnoses of Gambling Disorder and Psychiatric Comorbidity in the Swedish Health Care System—A Nationwide Register Study

“…Several studies have also described gender differences in psychiatric comorbidity in GD patients. While GD is considerably more common in men ( 8 – 10 ), women have been reported to be more likely to suffer from concurrent non-substance-related psychiatric disorders, compared to their male counterparts ( 11 – 14 ), whereas concurrent substance use disorders may be more common in men ( 13 , 15 , 16 ).…”