By William J. Cromie

Gazette Staff

Many more young people than adults have a gambling problem, according to the first comprehensive analysis of gambling addiction in the United States and Canada, done by researchers at Harvard.

In 1997, as many as 11.1 million adolescents in the two countries were addicted to gambling, compared to a maximum of 9.6 million adults, the study estimates. By one measure, 20 percent more college students suffer gaming addictions than youths in general.

When those with less severe gambling problems are added, the total is much higher. In this group, adolescents outnumber adults five to one, by one measure.

Men are more likely to be addicted gamblers than women. Those with other psychiatric and substance abuse problems have the highest rates of disordered gambling, about nine times greater than those in the general population.

The analysis concluded that "pathological" gaming, the severest level, has jumped more than 50 percent among adults since 1977. The steep rise corresponds to the dramatic growth in legalized gambling in the U.S. and Canada, including everything from casinos and lotteries to church bingo games.

"While the majority of Americans and Canadians who gamble do so without experiencing any adverse consequences, our findings show that a growing percentage of the adult population is at risk for gambling disorders," said Howard Shaffer, associate professor of psychology at the Medical School. "As gambling has become more socially accepted and accessible during the past two decades, the general adult population has started to gamble in increasing numbers," he reported to a meeting at the National Center for Responsible Gambling in Kansas City, Mo., on Dec. 9.

The social and economic costs of what is called "disordered gambling" rise significantly, Shaffer notes, as addicts need to gamble with larger and larger amounts of money; commit forgery, embezzlement, robbery, and other crimes to get that money; and incur devastating family, job, and school problems.

Gambling Tied to Other Problems

To prepare the report, Shaffer worked with Matthew Hall and Joni Vander Bilt, research associates at the Medical School's Division of Addiction, which Shaffer heads. They analyzed 120 studies of disordered-gambling prevalence that were published between 1977 and 1997.

One surprise finding: although more adolescents are gambling addicts, their numbers have not increased as they have among adults. "We expected to find such increases," Shaffer said. "Also, we found no increase among adults who were being treated for mental illness or substance abuse."

Another surprise was a lack of differences in compulsive gambling rates between people in the U.S. and Canada, and between different regions of the U.S. "There were no differences in prevalences between the Midwest and the Western and Eastern states, as we had expected," Shaffer noted.

The next step, he says, "is to use this data to identify specific causes and influences that lead to this behavior."

Shaffer has studied addiction, alcoholism, and other kinds of substance abuse for 25 years. "I became interesting in gambling when I realized that gamblers show the same types of intoxication and withdrawal symptoms as those who are dependent on alcohol and narcotics."

One intriguing question Shaffer wants to explore is whether disordered gambling is an independent addiction, or, as he says, "a lightning rod for other kinds of psychiatric illnesses.

"There is evidence that it is an expression of depression, alcoholism, or other such problems," he continued. "However, I also think there may be a small group of 'pure' gamblers, those who have no other psychiatric disorders and get into trouble just by gambling too much."

Studying gambling, Shaffer believes, can lead to a better understanding of addictive behavior in general. "It gives us an opportunity to understand more about this behavior than simply the effects of substance abuse," he says.