INFORMATION: Statistics
STATISTICS
- 95%+ of the population is able to gamble responsibly without negative consequences.
- 40% of all problem gamblers started gambling before they were 17 years old.
- The number of teens playing poker for money has increased by more than 700% in the last two years alone. 80% are boys.
- There is a 75% co-morbidity rate, which means that the person who is addicted to gambling usually has at least one other addiction as well.
- Of all the addictions currently recognized, problem gamblers have the highest rate of suicide.
- The cost of gambling court treatment is only one sixth the amount of money it costs to keep someone in jail.
- New York State lottery revenues nearly doubled to $6.8 billion over the past six years.
- Not one federal dollar has been spent directly for treatment or prevention of problem gambling, even though it was framed as a public health issue for the first time in a 2002 Harvard University Addiction study.
- State and local governments are spending only $35.5 million of the $20.9 billion they receive annually in gambling taxes for treatment.
- The gambling industry spends millions influencing lawmakers through lobbying, and gamblers through TV, Internet, direct mail and billboard advertising, and only a slight sum of its billions in profits on research, prevention, and treatment.
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