Overview
Women and Gambling Data
Here, you’ll find a summary of problem gambling research data specific to Women from our Resource Library. For more information click research citation links.
For quick reference, data topic categories on this webpage include:
- General Women Data
- Aging/ Older Adults Data
- Asian Communities Data
- College and Young Adults Data
- Co-Occurring SUD Data
- Risk Factors
- Research Recommendations
General Women Gambling Data
2011
- 13% of females engage in frequent gambling (Welte, 2011).
- Frequent gambling is near its highest prevalence rate for 30+ year-old females (Welte, 2011).
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Women Aging/ Older Adults Data
2019
- Women over the age of 60 have a risk of problem gambling that is equivalent to, or even higher than, that of men in the same age group (Morgane, 2019).
- The prevalence of at-risk or problem gamblers is high among women over 65 years of age (Morgane, 2019).
- Retired women over the age of 75 are targeted gamblers most susceptible to gambling marketing (particularly to electronic games machines) (Morgane, 2019).
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Women Asian Communities Data
2022
- The root cause of Asian women who were in painful situations of physical and emotional abuse stemmed from uncontrolled gambling by a spouse (Colby et al, 2022).
2019
- Women over the age of 60 have a risk of problem gambling that is equivalent to, or even higher than, that of men in the same age group (Morgane, 2019).
- The prevalence of at-risk or problem gamblers is high among women over 65 years of age (Morgane, 2019).
- Retired women over the age of 75 are targeted gamblers most susceptible to gambling marketing (particularly to electronic games machines) (Morgane, 2019).
*View Asian Communities data summary*
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Women College & Young Adult Data
2017
- 5% rate of non-college females were identified as struggling with problem gambling (Barnes, 2017).
- 2% rate of college females were identified as struggling with problem gambling (Barnes, 2017).
- 12% of non-college females report heavy gambling (compared to 6% of college females) (Barnes, 2017).
- 5% of non-college females struggle with gambling harm (compared to 2% of females attending college) (Barnes, 2017).
- The most popular forms of gambling for females are lottery, card games, pools and raffles, and bingo (Barnes, 2017).
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Women Co-Occurring SUD Data
2013
- Rates of gambling and drinking in the past year is consistent for women (70% and 57% respectively) (Barnes et al., 2013).
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Women and Sports Betting Data
2021
- 12% of women bet on sports (NCPG, 2021).
2019
- 32% of those classified as PGSBs were women from a study in Spain (Winters and Derevensky, 2019).
- <1% of female college students gambled on fantasy leagues in the prior year (Winters and Derevensky, 2019).
- 25% of females who were fee-based fantasy sport players were identified as at-risk or pathological gamblers (Winters and Derevensky, 2019).
- Females consistently report lower levels of sports betting than males do (Winters and Derevensky, 2019).
2017
- 31% of NCAA women think sports wagering is a harmless pastime (NCAA, 2017).
- These figures are substantially higher among those NCAA women (61%) who wager on sports.
- Women engage in nearly all gambling activities at much lower rates than men (NCAA, 2017).
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Research Recommendations
- Age- and gender-targeted prevention and intervention strategies are warranted to reduce the serious consequences of gambling among young adult males in the U.S. population (Barnes, 2017).
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Citation
National Council on Problem Gambling. (2021). National Detail Report National Survey on gambling attitudes and … http://www.ncpgsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NCPG_NGAGE-Natl_Detailed_Report-Public.pdf (Link to Research)
Guillou Landreat M, Cholet J, Grall Bronnec M, Lalande S and Le Reste JY (2019) Determinants of Gambling Disorders in Elderly People—A Systematic Review. Front. Psychiatry 10:837. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00837. (Link to Research)
NCAA. (2017, November). Trends in NCAA Student-Athlete Gambling Behaviors and Attitudes. National Collegiate Athletic Association4. (Link to Research)
Barnes, G. M., Welte, J. W., Tidwell, M. C., & Hoffman, J. H. (2013). Effects of Neighborhood Disadvantage on Problem Gambling and Alcohol Abuse. Journal of behavioral addictions, 2(2), 82–89. https://doi.org/10.1556/JBA.2.2013.004. (Link to Research)
Welte JW, Barnes GM, Tidwell MC, Hoffman JH. Gambling and problem gambling across the lifespan. J Gambl Stud. 2011 Mar;27(1):49-61. doi: 10.1007/s10899-010-9195-z. PMID: 20499144; PMCID: PMC4383132. (Link to Research)
Barnes GM, Welte JW, Hoffman JH, Tidwell MC. Comparisons of gambling and alcohol use among college students and noncollege young people in the United States. J Am Coll Health. 2010 Mar-Apr;58(5):443-52. doi: 10.1080/07448480903540499. PMID: 20304756; PMCID: PMC4104810. (Link to Research)