University Events

Problem Gambling: A Senior Adult Age Group Comparison

George Ladd, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Rhode Island College

Studies suggest that up to 82% of American adults (more than 192 million) gamble in any given year.
Unfortunately, a large proportion (~5%) of adults experience pathological gambling dysfunction (4.5 million)
or are at significant risk for dysfunction (7 million). Therefore at least 11.5 million adults may be at risk for
or struggling with gambling dysfunction. Although the behavior is simple to define the dynamic interactions
of psychological, social, biological and cohort factors make it a very complex focus of study. Dr. Ladd’s recent
research evaluating within group differences in gambling and risk among senior adults is an interesting example
of the multidimensional complexity of gambling. A sample of 400 senior adults (65+ years) was obtained in
Rhode Island. Overall, 94.0% of senior adults had gambled in their lifetimes with 81.3% having gambled in
the past year.  Although no age group differences in lifetime gambling experience were found, younger seniors
showed a higher percentage of past-year gambling than older seniors. Younger seniors also showed a higher
percentage (12.6% versus 5.4%) of problem gambling.  An analysis of only those seniors who had gambled
in the past year showed that younger seniors still exhibited a higher percentage of problem gambling even
though both age groups were equivalent in past year total days gambling  and gambling expenditures. Younger
seniors may carry a higher risk for problem gambling compared to older seniors but it remains unclear if that
risk difference is due to age, cohort or other contextual factors. Dr. Ladd will discuss methodological and
psychosocial factors that may inform our interpretation of observed age group differences.  

George Ladd is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Rhode Island College (RIC). In addition to his
Psychology Department activities, Dr. Ladd serves as a faculty member within the Chemical Dependency &
Addiction Studies (CDAS) Program and as director of the grant funded Gambling Studies Project at RIC. After
graduate training in applied developmental psychology (Ph.D., Boston College), Dr. Ladd worked as an NIAAA
post-doctoral research fellow with the Alcohol Research Center at the University of Connecticut, School of
Medicine specializing in clinical correlates of substance use and gambling. His ongoing research interests at
RIC focus on the developmental factors and ontogenetic trajectories of addiction and multi-occurring risks.
This past summer his most recent work was presented at the 2011 National Conference on Problem Gambling
(Boston), the 2011 Convention of the Association for Psychological Science (Washington, D.C.) and the 2011
National HIV Prevention Conference (Atlanta).