Demographic characteristics, gambling engagement, mental health, and associations with harmful gambling risk among UK Armed Forces serving personnel.

Introduction: Harmful gambling negatively impacts individuals, families and communities. Growing international evidence indicates that the Armed Forces (AF) community may be at a comparatively higher risk of experiencing harm from gambling than the general population. The current study sought to identify general predictors of harmful gambling and gambling engagement among UK AF serving personnel (AFSP).

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, exploratory survey to identify associations between demographic factors, mental health, gambling engagement and gambling type in a sample (N=608) of AFSP.

Results: Most of the sample reported past-year gambling, with 23% having experienced harm. Male gender, younger age and lower educational attainment all predicted harmful gambling, as did mental health variables of prior generalised anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptomatology. Strategy-based gambling and online sports betting were also predictive of experiencing harm from gambling.

Conclusions: The risk of harm from gambling is associated with demographic, mental health and gambling engagement variables among AFSP. Better understanding of these predictors is important for the development of individualised treatment approaches for harmful gambling.