Income Differences and Recreational Gambling

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the correlates of recreational gambling in lower-income compared with middle/higher-income groups. We examined, by logistic regression, a nationally representative U.S. adult sample (n = 2417) from the 1998 Gambling Impact and Behavior Study (GIBS) to investigate the influence of income on the association between recreational gambling and general health and psychosocial measures, and on gambling attitudes and behaviors among recreational gamblers. An interaction model testing for factors that distinguished past-year recreational gamblers from nongamblers across income groups was significant at P < 0.05 for the variable of lifetime bankruptcy. Among the lower-income group, recreational gamblers compared with nongamblers were not more likely to report lifetime bankruptcy (odds ratio [OR] = 0.82; P = 0.58). Among the middle/higher-income group, recreational gambling was positively associated with bankruptcy (OR = 2.57; P < 0.01). Lower-income gamblers were less likely than middle/higher-income gamblers to report large maximal daily wins (P < 0.001) or losses (P < 0.001) and engage in strategic forms of gambling (P < 0.001). Middle/higher-income recreational gamblers perform different types of gambling and exhibit heavier gambling and higher rates of bankruptcy than lower-income recreational gamblers. Public health guidelines and interventions related to gambling should consider the influence of income.