Gambling with God: the effect of gambling on religious and spiritual struggles

Religion and spirituality are often related to various addictive behaviors, such as substance use disorders, excessive internet pornography use, and Gambling Disorder. However, presently, very few published articles have considered the relationship between Gambling Disorder and negative aspects of religion and spirituality such as religious and spiritual struggles. This study aimed to better understand how problem gambling severity may be uniquely associated with religious and spiritual struggles, both cross-sectionally and over time. The study used secondary data from a longitudinal MTurk Survey (n = 764; follow-up n = 342) and controlled for neuroticism, age, gender, income, and gambling preference. Problem gambling severity was uniquely associated with several types of religious and spiritual struggles at baseline and most struggles at a six-month follow-up, even after controlling for baseline levels of such struggles. Further research is necessary to understand the nature of these links and how they might inform clinical care.