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Eighty-one percent (n= 104) of the athletes and
81.3% (n= 670) of the non-athletes surveyed
reported that they gambled. In total, 4% (n= 36)
of the 954 participants were found to exhibit
signs of pathological gambling (Table 1).
Approximately 6% (n= 8) of the 129 athletes
surveyed scored five or higher on the SOGS,
while 3.4% (n= 28) of the 824 non-athletes
scored five or higher. Overall, 3.7% (n= 35) of
the 954 participants were found to exhibit signs
of problem gambling. Approximately 6.2% (n= 8)
of the 129 athletes surveyed scored three or
four on the SOGS, while 3.3% (n= 27) of the 824
non-athletes scored three or four. In addition,
male athletes were found to have a higher
prevalence rate of pathological gambling, 11.6%
(n= 8) compared to male non-athletes at 6.6% (n=
17). On the other hand, male non-athletes had a
higher prevalence rate of problem gambling than
male athletes, 8.2% (n= 21) and 5.8% (n= 4),
respectively. While more female non-athletes
exhibited signs of pathological gambling (1.5%
and 0.0%), the prevalence rates of problem
gambling were higher in female athletes, 1.1%
(n= 6) and 5.7% (n= 3), respectively.
Table 1
Another intriguing question that emerges from
this exercise is the issue of why women are just
as likely as men to score as problem gamblers
when their overall gambling participation
remains lower? Are women in fact more vulnerable
to developing gambling problems? Or are women
simply more likely than men to seek help for a
gambling problem, just as they are more likely
to seek help for other physical and
psychological ailments? Another possibility is
that methods for identifying problem gambling
may not work equally well in different subgroups
in the population. There may be something about
the problem gambling screens we use that elicits
more positive responses from women and people
from minorities.
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