Gambling in Western and Eastern Europe The Exampl

Authors: Bernadette Kun Hedvig Balázs Petra Arnold Borbála Paksi Zsolt Demetrovics

Publish Date: 2011/03/01

Volume: 28, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-46

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Abstract

The history of gambling in postsocialist countries is noticeably different from that of other countries in Europe The goal of this study was therefore twofold Firstly to systematically review all European epidemiological studies related to excessive gambling in the general adult population and secondly to provide an overview of the state of gambling in Hungary based on the first ever nationwide representative survey setting the results against the backdrop of the earlier European studies A systematic review was carried out of European gambling studies which focus on a representative adult general population Hungarian data was obtained from the National Survey on Addiction Problems in Hungary general adult population survey N = 2710 Pathological gambling was measured by the South Oaks Gambling Screen Lifetime prevalence of excessive gambling problem and pathological gambling in the general adult population of European countries varies between 11 Italy and Spain and 65 Estonia In Hungary the prevalence of problem gambling is 19 with pathological gambling at 14 The sociodemographic characteristics of the results are similar to those of other European countries Using epidemiological data from the general adult populations of two postsocialist nations it was possible to compare the results with data from 12 other European countries Based on the data available the extremely rapid liberation of the gambling market in the postsocialist countries has led to a similarly swift escalation in associated gambling problemsThis work was supported by Hungarian National Focal Point the National Institute for Drug Prevention and the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund Zsolt Demetrovics acknowledges the financial support of the János Bolyai Research Fellowship from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

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