Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 28, Issue 1, January–February 2003, Pages 189-197
Addictive Behaviors

Brief report
Characteristics of gambling and problematic gambling in the Norwegian context: A DSM-IV-based telephone interview study

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0306-4603(01)00256-8Get rights and content

Abstract

The gaming business has increased considerably during the past years, and there are also some indications that the prevalence of pathological gambling has also increased. As it is important to know the problem size and character, an epidemiological study was performed in a representative sample of the Norwegian population (N=2014; response rate 47.8%). The proportion that never gambled was 31.2%, and a majority (47.2%) gambled sometimes, while 21.0% gambled often. Men (25.5%) gambled more often than women (17.7%). Lotto was the most popular game with 76.0%, followed by football tip (10.8%), slot machines (5.1%), and lotteries (4.9%). For some types of plays, there was a discrepancy between rank for playing, and for problematic playing. Slot machines gave higher problematic playing rank. The mean prevalence of problematic gambling (pathological gambling plus at-risk gambling) was 0.60%, with higher prevalence for those younger and for men. Men 18–30 had a very high prevalence (2.83), compared to men over 30 (0.28%) and females 18–30 (0.84) and over 30 (0.12%). The total problematic gambling frequency was 1.97% for 18–30 years, and 0.1% over 30. There are no problematic gamblers over 50 in the material. The DSM-IV with its only 10 questions gives a conservative estimate of pathological gambling. There were significant correlations between degree of gambling and some established risk factors.

Introduction

Looking at Norwegian reports on gambling, there is a rather steep increase in the availability and prevalence of gambling behavior over the last 20 years (Götestam, 1993). The extent of “pathological gambling,” as defined by, for instance, the DSM diagnostic system (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994), has not so far been known for the Norwegian context, although there are reports from other parts of the world (Volberg, Dickerson, Ladouceur, & Abbott, 1996). A few reports have also indicated an increase in pathological gambling during the last years Ladouceur et al., 1999, Shaffer et al., 1999. That would then correlate with the increase of gaming and gambling behavior (see Götestam, 1993).

The assessment of problematic and pathological gambling has been made with ordinary diagnostic systems, but during the last years, the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), introduced by Leiseur and Blume (1987), has taken the DSM-III and DSM-III-R American Psychiatric Association, 1980, American Psychiatric Association, 1987, as a starting point, for the development of a new scale, which has been frequently used. SOGS has a high sensitivity for lifetime problematic and pathological gambling in normal populations (Abbott & Volberg, 1996). There also exist other developments from DSM-III and DSM-III-R, but they all depart from DSM in their constructions, with more response categories, specifically weakening the diagnostic power of these instruments. The DSM-III-R has now been improved in the recent DSM-IV (APA, 1994). In this version, especially the dysphoric and escaping signs have been added for pathological gambling. Although DSM-IV has been used in some studies of gambling, so far, it has not been extensively used. There are also other diagnostic instruments used, but none were widely used for gambling.

Although there were some forerunners, the estimation of pathological gambling was started by Volberg and Steadman (1988) in the US, followed by a series of studies there (see Volberg, 1996), and also in Australia and New Zealand (Volberg & Abbott, 1994) and in Canada (Ladouceur, 1996) for a review see Petry & Armentano (1999).

In their New Zealand study, Volberg and Abbott (1994) listed certain risk factors for the development of pathological gambling: male, under 30, non-Caucasian, not married, unemployed. The list was later enlarged with: less than high school, and income under US$25,000 (Volberg, 1996).

The occurrence of problematic gambling has implications for public health. Knowledge of the occurrence and profile of gaming and gambling activities are of great importance when actions for legislation to control the overall rate of gambling problems in the general population and service options for at-risk individuals and groups should be implemented (Volberg, 1994).

From a survey of gambling policy in 38 states in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (Volberg et al., 1996), it is also clear that the knowledge from prevalence studies is essential for the establishment of adequate types of service for problematic gamblers and their families. States with deficit in such knowledge tended to establish types of service not meeting the needs, not being used, or in other ways failing (Volberg et al., 1996).

The aim of the present study was to get an overview of money gambling behavior in Norway in general, and specifically prevalence rates of pathological gambling. We have chosen DSM-IV as we are mainly interested in identifying individuals with pathological gambling, and individuals potentially at risk for developing such pathological gambling.

Section snippets

Subjects

A total of 4820 subjects were obtained by random-digit telephone dialing of residential dwellings. This covered the entire country. If the answerer was 18 years old or over, the interview was tried started, and 2014 completed a telephone interview.1

Demographic data

There were 2014 respondents and the response rate was 47.8%. The sample consisted of 48.9% men and 51.2% women. The age was rather equally distributed when divided into three age groups (18–30, 31–50, over 50). Of the sample, 29.5% had university or college education, 41.7% reached senior high school, and 28.6% attended a 10-year (compulsory) school. Of the sample, 68.3% were in work, studies, or military service and 31.6% were not. Respondents married or living together comprised 65.3% while

Discussion

The main findings showed that 68.8% of the normal population was gambling. Lotto was the most popular type of game with 76.0%, followed by football tip (10.8%), slot machines (5.1%), and lotteries (4.9%). A mean of 0.15% were pathological gamblers, according to the DSM-IV, and an additional 0.45% were “at-risk gamblers.” The prevalence was higher in lower age, and with males (with 3.15% males 18–30 years being problematic gamblers). Of the problematic gamblers, four have slot machines as first

Acknowledgements

Truls Nedregård, Norwegian Gallup Institute, is gratefully acknowledged for help with the data collection, and Dr. Robert Ladouceur and Dr. Rachel Volberg for constructive criticism of a previous manuscript.

Support was given by Norwegian Tipping and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim (NTNU).

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A preliminary version of this study was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, New Orleans, March 1998.

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