The NCRG recently awarded an NCRG Center of Excellence in Gambling Research and four Seed Grants. The center grant of $355,001 was awarded to Dr. Wendy Slutske at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Dr. Slutske’s project seeks to fill the void of research on community-based studies of gambling disorder. Because so few disordered gamblers seek treatment, treatment populations cannot be considered representative of all disordered gamblers; hence, the need for broad community-based studies to answer questions about the origins and trajectory of gambling disorder.
Focusing on four unique datasets from Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and a US sample of reservation-dwelling Native Americans, Slutske’s team will pursue the following questions: (1) is living in a disadvantaged neighborhood a (potentially malleable) environmental cause of disordered gambling (DG), and if so, why? (2) where among the ~20,000 genes in the human genome are the variants associated with the risk for DG, and do these overlap with the genetic variants associated with the risk for other conditions such as alcohol use disorder?, (3) are there certain environments in which the genetic risk for DG is more likely to be expressed?, (4) when in the life course is DG more or less likely to first emerge?, and (5) are the causes of DG similar across the lifespan?
The NCRG also recently awarded four Seed Grants: