Older People at Risk Gambling

Filed in archive Gambling General on January 19, 2005

According to the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry the elderly are at risk by gambling more than they can afford

Healthcentral.com reports:

Researchers surveyed 843 people aged 65 and older and found that 70 percent of them had been involved in at least one gambling activity within the previous year. Eleven percent could be classified as at-risk gamblers because they'd recently put more than $100 on a single bet and/or had bet more money than they could afford to lose.

And its no different for men or women.

The issue is because a lot of seniors live on fixed income so any losses will have a bigger impact than usual

However, whilst I'm not denying the potential impact of the report,it focuses solely on the elderly. It needs to be compared with the general population to see if the skew is significant. Ultimately, gambling is a form of entertainment for certain demographics - especially the elderly - and I can't help wondering that all this is yet another round of scaremongering