It’s an even money bet that each of these vices makes the other one worse.
Your Back Page correspondent is no stranger to the joys of watching a televised sporting competition accompanied by the modest consumption of a fermented beverage.
That simple pleasure has been diminished somewhat in recent years, however, by the exponential intrusion of advertisements spruiking the respective qualities of internet-based wagering products, followed by a stern government-mandated warning that I’m likely to lose more money gambling than I’ll win.
Clearly those warnings aren’t working, or the advertisers wouldn’t be persisting with their increasingly exotic attempts to drain the contents of the viewers’ bank accounts.
But there is another reason our regulators should really be doing more to rein in these latter-day highwaymen: they’re not just impoverishing vulnerable folks who find it hard to resist a flutter, they’re turning them into problem drinkers as well.
That’s according to research released this week by boffins at the University of New Mexico.
Publishing in JAMA Psychiatry, a research team details its findings from a two-year longitudinal study designed to “identify trajectories within sports gambling frequency and alcohol use problems”.
What they found was damning.
In a nutshell, the study shows that the more frequently people gambled on sport the more likely they were to have alcohol-related drinking problems.
Essentially, the two issues are hand in glove.
“The trajectories of sports gambling frequency and alcohol-related problems follow each other, suggesting that as one increases or decreases, corresponding changes are likely in the other,” the research team said in a media release.
“This study demonstrates that sports gamblers are at unique risk of alcohol-related harms both generally and over time.”
The researchers recommend that, given the elevated risks, screening and treatment interventions should be undertaken for sport gamblers who also drank concurrently.
Now given the study was jointly funded with grants from the International Center for Responsible Gaming, Problem Gambling Network of Ohio, and the Kindbridge Research Institute, you be forgiven for saying: “Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?”
Regardless, the evidence of a correlation between the twin vices is undeniable, even if showing causation is more problematic.
That in itself should be enough to give responsible governments cause to question if they are doing enough, or even charting the correct course, to combat the growing scourge of online gaming.
But if I were a betting man, which I am not, I wouldn’t be putting money on that happening any time soon.
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