DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) has released a new study on gambling among Iowa adults. Gambling Attitudes and Behaviors: A 2013 Survey of Adult Iowans, prepared by the University of Northern Iowa Center for Social and Behavioral Research, estimates almost 1.8 million adult Iowans gambled during the past 12 months. Of that number, it is estimated 8,000 adult Iowans could be classified as ‘problem’ gamblers.
“We know the majority of Iowans who gamble do so simply because it’s fun and they do not have financial or emotional problems as a result of it,” said Eric Preuss of the IDPH Office of Problem Gambling Treatment and Prevention. “However, this study found 16 percent of adult Iowans were classified as “at-risk” gamblers in 2013. That’s 369,000 Iowans who may have one or more symptoms of problem gambling.”
Symptoms of problem gambling include:
- Thinking a lot about gambling, such as past gambling experiences, future gambling ventures, or ways of getting money for gambling
- Needing to gamble with larger amounts of money or with larger bets in order to get the same feeling of excitement
- Repeatedly trying to cut down or stop your gambling without success
- Feeling restless or irritable when trying to cut down or stop gambling
- Gambling to run away from problems or to get relief from feeling depressed, anxious, or bad about yourself
- After losing money gambling, often returning another day in order to win back your losses
- Lying to family members, friends, or others in order to hide your gambling from them
- Losing or almost losing a significant relationship, job, or an educational or career opportunity because of gambling
- Relying on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling
According to the report, 93 percent of Iowans say they have gambled at some time during their lives and 77.8 percent said they had gambled during the past 12 months. That is significantly higher than in 2011, when 68.9 percent of Iowa adults said they had gambled during the past 12 months. The most common forms of gambling, in order of popularity, were lottery tickets, raffle tickets, scratch tickets/pull-tabs, slot machines, and card games with friends, family members or others (not at a casino).
To see the entire Gambling Attitudes and Behaviors: A 2013 Survey of Adult Iowans report, visitwww.idph.state.ia.us/IGTP/common/pdf/reports/2013_adult_iowans_survey.pdf.
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