7 Americans spend approximately $31.5 billion annually on state lottery games, with many states becoming increasingly reliant on revenues from legalized gambling. The amount of money wagered annually in the United States is estimated to be $0.5 trillion. The economics of gambling are staggering. Most pathologic gamblers began gambling in their youth 11- to 18-year-olds in one study showed a 4 to 7 percent prevalence rate of problem gambling behaviors. This high prevalence of gambling-related problems in military personnel is not surprising, given the younger demographics of this population. The survey reported that in 19, 7.1 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively, of all Department of Defense personnel had at least one gambling-related problem, and 2 percent exhibited behaviors suggestive of pathologic gambling. 2 The Worldwide Survey of Substance Abuse and Health Behaviors Among Military Personnel 3 is a large-scale epidemiologic study that screened personnel for gambling-related problems. 1 In 1978 only two states had legalized gambling in 1998, however, only two states had not legalized gambling. In 1991, 80 percent of the United States' population gambled in some manner, compared with only 61 percent in the 1960s.
Continued growth in the gambling industry raises concerns about a possible increase in the prevalence of problem and pathologic gambling.
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