Reno Gazette-Journal

Dear Editor:

It is understandable that you ran the April 19 article headlined “New study: Gambling addiction overtakes alcoholism.” After all, the findings were pretty remarkable. Unfortunately for your readers, the article gave them bad information.

A close look reveals that the study’s author compared apples to oranges, based on accepted diagnostic criteria for these disorders.  Every other comparison of the two disorders shows the prevalence of alcoholism to be two or three times higher than gambling addiction.

Here are the facts from the largest national studies on these issues:

• The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), based on face-to-face interviews with 43,093 U.S. residents aged 18 and older, estimated the prevalence of lifetime pathological gambling to be 0.4 percent and lifetime problem gambling to be 0.9 percent.  An analysis of alcohol use disorders in the survey found a prevalence rate of 4.65 percent for alcohol abuse and 3.81 percent for alcohol dependence.
• The National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) of 9,282 face-to-face interviews found a lifetime prevalence rate of 0.6 percent for pathological gambling and a lifetime rate of 2.3 percent for problem gambling. An analysis of an earlier NCS-R study found a lifetime prevalence rate of 13.2 percent for alcohol abuse and 5.4 percent for alcohol dependence.

This letter is not meant to diminish the seriousness of problem gambling. Our industry has long believed that even one problem gambler is one too many, and we continue to support programs to help those who cannot gamble responsibly.

Sincerely,

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.
President and CEO
American Gaming Association