title: Lessons from the grey area: a closer inspection of at-risk gamblers.
abstract: The study takes a closer look at at-risk gamblers, with the objective to see how they differ from no-risk gamblers. The data comes from a national gambling survey in 2002, and the age group is 15-74 years. The sample consists of 4188 current gamblers with no current gambling problems or pathology. The analysis includes cross-tabulations and a logistic regression. The results show that at-risk gamblers differed substantially from no-risk gamblers in terms of demographic characteristics, gambling behaviour and the presence of other assumed risk factors. Demographic segments with a higher risk of falling into the at-risk group are men, young people, divorced or single people, and non-western immigrants. Furthermore, gambling problems in the family, beginners luck and misconceptions about winning chances significantly increased the odds for at-risk gambling. The study concludes that at-risk gamblers deserve more attention from research, that their similarity with problem gamblers increases the likelihood that many of them will eventually develop a gambling problem, and that their tendency to be superstitious about winning chances might be exploited in preventive work.
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, Post Box 565, Sentrum, Oslo, 0105, Norway. il@sirus.no
authors.forename: Ingeborg
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lund
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012940:Social Problems; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology