HHS HealthBeat (May 23, 2011)

Gambling over the years

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A look at national survey data indicates that how people gamble varies, depending on how old they are. John Welte of the University at Buffalo in New York examined the data:

``Any capacity of gambling – that is, whether you gambled at all in the past year – peaks in the 20s. Frequent gambling peaks in the 50s. And problem gambling peaks in the 30s.’’ (9 seconds)

Welte says about 2 to 4 percent of adults have a gambling problem. This can range from thinking a lot about gambling, and needing ever-higher stakes to get the same excitement, to breaking the law to get money for gambling, and having to turn to someone else for financial help because of gambling.

The article in the Journal of Gambling Studies was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 31, 2011