Comorbid psychiatric diagnoses and gaming preferences in US armed forces veterans receiving inpatient treatment for gambling disorder.

Armed Forces Veterans are uniquely vulnerable to problem gambling and gambling disorder. Even so, research regarding the full clinical profile of veterans with gambling problems lags. Gambling activities vary widely from each other, but most gambling activities can be understood as either strategic (i.e., involving some measure of skill and decision-making as a part of the gambling practice) or non-strategic (i.e., gambling activities that are entirely based on chance). Prior works have found that gamblers that prefer strategic gambling activities and those that prefer nonstrategic gambling activities often differ from each other in key ways, with the two preferences being linked to varying motivations for gambling, varying cognitions about gambling, and the course of gambling disorder. The present work sought to examine how preferences for strategic vs. nonstrategic gambling might be related to psychiatric comorbidities among U.S. Armed Forces Veterans receiving inpatient treatment for Gambling Disorder. Data from U.S. Armed Forces Veterans (N = 401) receiving residential treatment for GD between the years of 2010-2016 were analyzed. Results demonstrated that gamblers that preferred strategic gambling, as opposed to non-strategic gambling, were more likely to be younger, more likely to be men, less likely to have a nicotine use disorder, and less likely to have PTSD. Such findings suggest that gamblers with PTSD are likely to prefer nonstrategic games and may imply a unique vulnerability to gambling problems related to non-strategic gambling among armed forces veterans.