How many disordered gamblers are there?

Most prevalence studies estimate that approximately 1 percent of the U.S. adult population meet diagnostic criteria for the most severe form of gambling disorder. The most recent estimates are drawn from the first national surveys to collect data about gambling disorders: The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) (1), published in 2005, and the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), published in 2008.(2)  A summary of these findings is provided in the monograph, Gambling and the Public Health, Part 1, written for a non-scientific audience.

The prevalence rate of gambling disorder has remained relatively stable for more than 30 years. In its 1999 report, the federally funded National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC) stated: "[T]he vast majority of Americans either gamble recreationally and experience no measurable side effects related to their gambling, or they choose not to gamble at all. Regrettably, some of them gamble in ways that harm themselves, their families, and their communities."(3)

According to research commissioned by the NGISC, the prevalence rate of pathological gambling could be anywhere from 0.1 percent or 0.6 percent(4) to 0.9 percent.(5) A 1997 meta-analysis conducted by Harvard Medical School’s Division on Addictions found that 1.1 percent of the adult population of the United States and Canada can be classified as past-year pathological gamblers.(6) The results of the Harvard study, later published in the American Journal of Public Health, were characterized by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences as "the best current estimates of pathological and problem gambling among the general U.S. population and selected subpopulations…"(7) Subsequent independent studies have confirmed these estimates.

  1. Petry, N.M., Stinson, F.S., & Grant, B.F. (2005). Comorbidity of DSM-IV pathological gambling and other psychiatric disorders: Results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66(5), 564-574.
  2. Kessler, R.C., Hwang, I., LaBrie, R., Petukhova, M., Sampson, N.A., Winters, K.C., et al. (2008). DSM-IV pathological gambling in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.Psychological Medicine, 38(9),1351-601.
  3. National Gambling Impact Study Commission, Final Report. (1999). Washington, D.C.: GPO. 1-1.
  4. National Opinion Research Center, et al. (1999) Gambling Impact and Behavior Study, report prepared for the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. Chicago: University of Chicago. 25.
  5. National Research Council. (1999) Pathological Gambling: A Critical Review. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 3.
  6. Shaffer, H.J., Hall, M.N. & Vander Bilt, J. (1997) Estimating the Prevalence of Disordered Gambling Behavior in the United States and Canada: A Meta-analysis Boston: Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions. 38. See also Shaffer, H.J., Hall, M.N. & Vander Bilt, J. (1999). Estimating the Prevelance of Disordered Gambling Behavior in the United States and Canada: A Research Synthesis.  American Journal of Public Health, 89(9): 371.
  7. National Research Council. (1999) Pathological Gambling: A Critical Review. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 67. 

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