Gambling and the trait of addiction in a sample of New Zealand university students

A recent national survey (Amey, 2001) found that proportionately more young people in New Zealand gambled on cards, scratch tickets and gaming machines than older age groups. From North American surveys, young urban males in college are at risk of being problem gamblers. The present study compared the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling among a sample of 171 first year university students with the prevalence found nationally and internationally. The students, median age 23 years, completed a questionnaire consisting of demographic items, questions about gambling behaviour, the Revised South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS-R), a depression inventory, and the Eysenck Addiction scale. Approximately 97% of the sample gambled for money and 16% of the 165 gamblers were classified as problem gamblers. Maori gambled on more activities than the European/Pakeha, Pacific Island or Asian groups-did, but there were no other significant sociodemographic differences. There were significant differences between problem and non-problem gamblers on gambling frequency, number of activities, amount gambled, parents' gambling, continuous gambling, depression and Addiction. Logistic regression analysis showed that after controlling for gambling frequency, number of activities, amount gambled, continuous gambling and parents' gambling, Addiction was a significant predictor in discriminating between problem and non-problem gamblers. Combining initiatives in the prevention and treatment of drug and gambling addiction was suggested.