Suicide risk among young gamblers is 9 times higher

YOUNG people are up to nine times more likely to attempt suicide if they are problem gamblers, a study found.

The University of Glasgow research said there was a ‘substantial and significant’ association between harmful betting and suicide attempts among 16 to 24-year-olds.

The survey of 3,500 young people found that of the men who had not made an attempt on their life or had suicidal thoughts in the last year, only 4 per cent showed signs of being problem gamblers.

But the figure was about ten times higher among those who had attempted suicide, with 37 per cent of this group displaying traits of a betting habit.

Among women, just under 15 per cent who had attempted suicide had a betting habit, and of the group who had not tried to kill themselves, 2 per cent did. The researchers worked out that young men with betting habits were nine times more likely to attempt suicide than those who did not struggle with the addiction. And women problem gamblers were nearly five times more at risk of suicide.

Lead author Dr heather Wardle, whose work is published in the Lancet Public health journal, said: ‘The association was very strong, even standing up when we took a range of other things into account, such as the amount people used social media and gaming. We must now consider gambling as a public health issue.’

This week an Oxford University-led study showed heavy gamblers were a third more likely to die within five years than non-gamblers.

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