‘Part of the sports culture’: Gamblers ‘especially at risk’ for alcohol-related problems

Key takeaways:

• Alcohol-related problems decreased during the study period, while sports gambling stayed steady.
• However, models showed a positive correlation between both trends.

The trajectory of sports gambling over the past several years exhibits strong ties to trends related to alcohol use disorders, results from a cross-sectional survey study showed.

Researchers reported a highly positive correlation between sports gambling and alcohol use disorders and, as a result, individuals who increase their sports gambling over time “would be at substantial risk for also increasing problems related to alcohol,” they wrote in JAMA Psychiatry.

“The findings lined up with our expectations,” Joshua B. Grubbs, PhD, an associate professor in the department of psychology at The University of New Mexico, told Healio.

“Alcohol is a part of sports culture in the U.S.,” he added. “Drinking while watching sports is a relatively normal activity. Finding that people who gamble on sports are also drinking more and with more problems makes sense.”

Previous research has suggested that alcohol use commonly coincides with sports gambling behavior but “little is known about overall trajectories of sports gambling and alcohol use over longer periods of time,” according to Grubbs and colleagues.

“We do not yet have a clear understanding of the extent to which sports gambling and alcohol use risks fluctuate together over time,” they wrote.

In the longitudinal study, participants completed surveys every 6 months between the spring of 2022 and spring of 2024. They used latent growth curve modeling to determine the trajectories of sports gambling and alcohol use over the five time points.

The study samples included 2,806 adults and 1,557 adults who gambled on sports. The total sample, composed of 51.4% men, had a mean age of 49.6 years.

The model showed that alcohol problems decreased over the study period (slope = 0.059; 95% CI, 0.09 to 0.028).

Sports gambling frequency did not show a significant trend over time (slope = 0.003; 95% CI, 0.053 to 0.047). However, they reported significant variance in this slope (variance = 0.024; 95% CI, 0.013-0.034).

Ultimately, the slope of alcohol-related problems strongly and positively correlated with the slope of sports gambling frequency (r > .6), Grubbs and colleagues noted.

“Such findings suggest that, though both sports gambling frequency and alcohol-related problems trended downward over time, these trajectories do not move independently, and it is likely that increases in one would correspond to increases in the other,” they wrote.

The researchers noted that they did not test for the potential of cross-lagged effects, and limitations to the analysis included individual self-reporting and long response intervals.

“In a real way, I think this work is especially relevant to health care professionals outside of mental health fields alone,” Grubbs told Healio. “Alcohol-related problems pose very real health risks that are well known and well documented beyond the mental health effects alone.

“Sports gamblers are especially at risk of having alcohol related problems,” he added. “In primary care settings, this means that providers who know or find out that a patient is gambling on sports should definitely be screening for alcohol-related problems as well.”

Grubbs explained that the next step in research is to understand the causes linking these two behaviors.

“Are sports gamblers drinking more because they are gambling on sports? Or are they gambling more because they are drinking? Or is it both?” he said. “We don’t really know yet what’s happening, in the moment, that is driving this association.”

For more information:

Joshua B. Grubbs, PhD, can be reached at joshuagrubbs12@unm.edu.