Gambling and military Service: Characteristics, comorbidity, and problem severity in an epidemiological sample

Key Points from this Research:

• Problem gambling scores for past and current military service members are more than double that of the civilian participants.
• The relationship between problem gambling scores and military service is significantly stronger for women than men.
• Active military service members scored higher on the Problem Gambling Severity Index, indicating greater weekly participation in online gambling, lottery, electronic gambling machine, and sports betting.
• Active military service members have nearly 20 times the rate of suicidal ideation compared with civilians.
• Among military service members problem gambling scores were associated with suicidal ideation, tobacco use, and substance use problems.