Gambling addiction in B.C. on the decline, survey suggests

B.C.’s gambling addiction problem seems to be on the decline across the general population, according to a new government report.

An estimated 3.3 per cent of the population could be considered moderate or high-risk problem gamblers, down from 4.6 per cent, according to the 2014 B.C. Problem Gambling Prevalence Study, based on an online and telephone survey of 3,058 people.

The report was released on the same day that the B.C. government revealed a new plan to deal with the public health risks associated with gambling addiction, a roadmap that includes programs aimed at preventing problem gambling among young people, more advertising about responsible gambling on the online portal PlayNow.com, and research into gambling addiction.

The full roadmap is available online at gaming.gov.bc.ca.

About three-quarters of British Columbians (72.5 per cent) surveyed for the report said that they had gambled in some way at least once in the last year.

That includes people who played the slots at the casino or participated in poker games with friends, as well as those who bought lottery tickets and participated in charity raffles or purchased speculative stock.

Lotteries and scratch-and-win tickets were the most popular way to gamble, with more than 80 per cent of survey respondents saying they had tried their luck in the last year.

The wealthy are the biggest gamblers in the province — 79.3 per cent of people with annual household incomes over $100,000 reporting gambling in the last year.

Young people between the ages of 18 and 24 were the least likely to gamble (61.9 per cent), while people between the ages of 35 and 64 were most likely to participate (75.1 per cent).

But even though young people were the least likely to gamble, they also make up the age group that is most likely to develop a gambling problem, an issue examined using a 33-point questionnaire called the Canadian Problem Gambling Index.

The percentage of young people with gambling problems is up one point since the last survey.