New German government study claims problem gambling is on the decline

The bi-annual report of the German federal government Drug Commissioner released last week indicates that there has been a 2.9 percent drop in “at risk” gamblers since 2015, and a 14.8 percent drop in the category since 2007.

Whilst the report deals with other forms of addiction as well, problem gambling has a dedcated section in which 11,500 responents were asked carefully constructed questions designed to assess whether they are “at risk” of becoming problem gamblers or not. In the current survey 37.3 percent were so assessed, down from the 40.2 percent in the 2015 report, and down 14.8 percent from the same figure in 2007.

The percentage of those assessed that were ultimately classified as “problem gamblers” was 0.42 percent, whilst 0.37 percent were characterised as seriously pathological gamblers. these number compare respectively with the 0.69 percent and 0.82 percent rtecorded in 2013.

Noteworthy in the latest report is the drop in female severely pathological gamblers to 0.07 percent from 0.31 percent, whilst the number of female problem gamblers remained largely the same. Male problem gamblers over the 2013-2015 period fell from 1.16 percent to 0.66 percent, whilst severe pathological gamblers declined from 1.32 percent to 0.68 percent.

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