Lower severity gambling and associated social, health and economic correlates

Abstract

Gambling poses a public health threat due to the harmful effects on individuals, family, and the community at large. Although most of the consequences experienced by problem gamblers are well documented, less is known about the experiences of other group of gamblers such as low severity gamblers. The purpose of this study was to examine the social, health and economic correlates for lower severity gambling (low and moderate risk) and to identify their sociodemographic characteristics. Binary logistic regressions were used to analyse data from the cross-sectional study of 4303 participants in Tasmania. When compared with problem gamblers, low and moderate risk gamblers were more likely to have better quality of life. Furthermore, low risk gamblers were highly educated, older female immigrants, with higher annual income, and less likely to experience problems with drug use, chronic illnesses, finances and life event. These findings have implications for health education and harm minimization.