“For most people, gambling is recreation,” says Lia Nower, the center’s director, who led the study. “But the more games you play, the more often you gamble and the more venues you frequent, the more likely you are to develop a problem.”
Rates of gambling disorder in the general population hover below 2 percent, but are more than 6 percent in New Jersey. Neighboring states offer many gambling venues to New Jerseyans.
Only 5 percent of gamblers in the study reported gambling online, while 75 percent stuck to casinos and other land-based venues. Nineteen percent of gamblers said they gambled both online and at land-based venues. The most popular games were lottery tickets and instant scratch-offs, gaming machines and live casino table games. Nower says online gambling doesn’t seem responsible for higher rates of problem gambling.
“The people with the most severe problems are typically those who gamble on activities like slot machines and video poker at casinos and also played casino games online,” she says.
Nower and her colleagues were surprised to find that Hispanic adults reported the highest rates of problem gambling of any ethnic group, 16 percent. That was more than eight times the rate in the general population and three times the rate of white adults.
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The study also examined the relationship of gambling to daily fantasy sports play, which federal law excludes from gambling prohibitions. Both frequency and severity of gambling in this group were significantly higher than among gamblers in general, the study found.
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gambling-rampant-in-new-jersey-rutgers-study-shows-300464713.html
SOURCE Rutgers University
