Prevalence of Disordered Gambling in the US and Canada

Shaffer, Hall & Vander Bilt (1999) conducted a

research synthesis of studies that had reported

the prevalence of gambling in either the United

States or Canada.

The synthesis included 94 studies that provided

106 prevalence estimates with 122’286

respondents.

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Prevalence of Disordered Gambling in the US and Canada

Prevalence estimates (lifetime and

past-year) were compared over

time, and between four population

segments (adults, adolescent,

college, and treatment/prison).

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Prevalence of Disordered Gambling in the US and Canada

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Number Lifetime Prevalence Estimates

Estimates Participants Level 3*Pathological

Level 2**Subclinical

Adult 50 79 037 1.60% 3.85%

Adolescent 22 27 741 3.88% 9.45%

College 16 8 918 4.67% 9.28%

Treatment/Prison 18 6 590 14.23% 15.01%

*Level 3 included those gamblers who met the established diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling (i.e., DSM-IV criteria, SOGS criteria).**Level 2 included those gamblers with subclinical levels of gambling problems.

Prevalence of Disordered Gambling in the US and Canada

Pathological gambling estimates in adults

were significantly lower than in the other

three population segments.

Subclinical estimates in adults were

significantly lower than in adolescents

and treatment/prison populations.

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Prevalence of Disordered Gambling in the US and Canada

The authors divided the studies into early studies

(1977 – 1993) and late studies (1994 – 1997),

and compared past-year pathological gambling

rates for adults.

They found that disordered gambling prevalence

had significantly increased over time, from 0.84%

to 1.29%. This increase might be associated with

increases in the availability of gambling (see the

model of Blaszczynski & Nower, 2002).

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