Gambling and gambling problem among elite athletes and their professional coaches: findings from a Swedish total population survey of participants in four sports

Figures & data

Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of the athletes and their coaches.

	Athletes, N = 1438		Coaches, N = 401
Characteristics	n	%	n	%
Sex
Males	934	64.9	317	79.1
Females	502	34.9	79	19.7
Don’t know	1	.1	0	.0
Missing	1	.1	5	1.2
Age, years
<18	89	6.2	-	-
18–24	826	57.4	65	16.2
25–29	351	24.4	42	10.5
30–35	115	8.0	56	14.0
>35	53	3.7	235	58.6
Missing	4	.3	3	.7
Brought up outside Sweden
No	1227	85.3	378	94.3
Yes	162	11.3	15	3.7
Missing	49	3.4	8	2.0
Employment within the sport
Full-time employment	334	23.2	124	30.9
Half-time employment	507	35.3	86	21.5
Other arrangements	296	20.6	80	20.0
No income from the sport	235	16.3	100	24.9
Missing	66	4.6	11	2.7
Living conditions
Living alone	405	28.2	87	21.7
Living with partner	436	30.3	102	25.4
Living with partner and children	145	10.1	164	40.9
Living with parents/siblings	335	23.3	26	6.5
Living with other person/persons	68	4.7	13	3.2
Missing	49	3.4	9	2.3
Gambling is important among my current family members
1 – Not correct at all	1086	75.5	329	82.0
2	124	8.6	31	7.7
3	62	4.3	10	2.5
4	12	0.8	3	0.8
5 – Completely correct	8	0.6	5	1.3
6 – Don’t know	19	1.3	2	.5
Missing	127	8.9	21	5.2

Table 2. Item missing values for all variables except sociodemographic characteristics among the athletes (N = 1438).

Item	Valid responses	Non-analysable responses	Missing values
I have not been able to exercise because of injury/illness	1350	-	88
I have limited socialization with people outside the sport	1343	-	95
Gambling is important to my teammates	1261	44	133
We often talk about gambling during training	1261	33	144
Our coaches have a positive attitude towards gambling	806	486	146
Permissive/non-permissive attitudes towards gambling in my sports club	778	513	147
Gambling companies encourage gambling among athletes	1279	-	159
I believe that my own games should be subjected to gambling by gambling companies	1266	-	172
I have gambled on my own game during the last 12 months	1278	-	160
Someone I know has gambled on their own game during the last 12 months	1221	-	217
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you bet more than you could really afford to lose? (PGSI, item 1)	1246	-	192
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you needed to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling of excitement? (PGSI, item 2)	1231	-	207
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you gone back another day to try to win back the money you lost? (PGSI, item 3)	1232	-	206
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you borrowed money or sold anything to gamble? (PGSI, item 4)	1234	-	204
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you felt that you might have a problem with gambling? (PGSI, item 5)	1232	-	206
Thinking over the last 12 months, have people criticized your betting or told you that you had a gambling problem, whether or not you thought it was true? (PGSI, item 6)	1231	-	207
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble? (PGSI, item 7)	1232	-	206
Thinking over the last 12 months, has gambling caused you any health problems, including stress or anxiety? (PGSI, item 8)	1232	-	206
Thinking over the last 12 months, has your gambling caused any financial problems for you or your household? (PGSI, item 9)	1229	-	209
Someone in my acquaintance has or has had a gambling problem	1244	-	194
If so, someone in my sports club	1234	-	204
If so, someone in another sports club	1234	-	204
If so, someone in my acquaintance, outside the sport	1238	-	200
If so, someone in my acquaintance, in the sport	1236	-	202
Other	1205	30	203
How often do you have a drink containing alcohol? (AUDIT-C, item 1)	1267	-	171
How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking? (AUDIT-C, item 2)	1259	-	179
How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion? (AUDIT-C, item 3)	1252	-	186

Table 3. Item missing values for all variables except sociodemographic characteristics among the coaches (N = 401).

Item	Valid responses	Non-analysable responses	Missing values
Active in women’s sports	390	-	11
I have limited socialization with people outside the sport	385	-	16
Gambling is important to my colleagues	362	15	24
We often talk about gambling during training	365	13	23
Permissive/non-permissive attitude towards gambling	259	121	21
Gambling companies encourage gambling among athletes	377	-	24
I believe that my own games should be subjected to gambling by gambling companies	372	-	29
I have gambled on my own game during the last 12 months	375	-	26
Someone I know has gambled on their own game during the last 12 months	376	-	25
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you bet more than you could really afford to lose? (PGSI, item 1)	370	-	31
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you needed to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling of excitement? (PGSI, item 2)	370	-	31
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you gone back another day to try to win back the money you lost? (PGSI, item 3)	371	-	30
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you borrowed money or sold anything to gamble? (PGSI, item 4)	368	-	33
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you felt that you might have a problem with gambling? (PGSI, item 5)	369	-	32
Thinking over the last 12 months, have people criticized your betting or told you that you had a gambling problem, whether or not you thought it was true? (PGSI, item 6)	371	-	30
Thinking over the last 12 months, have you felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble? (PGSI, item 7)	371	-	30
Thinking over the last 12 months, has gambling caused you any health problems, including stress or anxiety? (PGSI, item 8)	368	-	33
Thinking over the last 12 months, has your gambling caused any financial problems for you or your household? (PGSI, item 9)	371	-	30
Someone in my acquaintance has or has had a gambling problem	371	-	30
f so, someone in my sports club	371	-	30
If so, someone in another sports club	371	-	30
If so, someone in my acquaintance, outside the sport	371	-	30
If so, someone in my acquaintance, in the sport	371	-	30
Other	366	5	30
How often do you have a drink containing alcohol? (AUDIT-C, item 1)	374	-	27
How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking? (AUDIT-C, item 2)	374	-	27
How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion? (AUDIT-C, item 3)	370	-	31

Table 4. Pooled proportions of gambling habits among Swedish athletes in four sports compared with a stratified random sample of the Swedish population in the age group of 16–39 years.

Gambling habits (PGSI)	Football %	Ice hockey %	Floorball %	Basketball %	Total %	Swedish population* %
Males, n	362	365	90	86	903	1895
Non-gambling	25.2	21.8	18.0	42.1	24.7	42.0
Non-problem gambling	50.7	52.6	52.7	39.7	50.6	45.2
Low risk gambling	11.0	12.2	14.7	8.0	11.6	8.6
At risk for gambling problems	13.1	12.2	14.6	10.2	13.1	4.2
Females, n	179	108	138	65	490	1678
Non-gambling	58.4	46.5	49.9	63.1	54.0	52.7
Non problem gambling	39.4	49.5	45.6	30.8	42.2	43.7
Low risk gambling	1.3	0.4	3.0	4.8	2.1	2.5
At risk for gambling problems	0.9	3.6	1.5	1.3	1.7	1.1

*Personal communication with the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

Table 5. Pooled proportions of gambling habits among Swedish coaches in four sports compared with a stratified random sample of the Swedish population in the age group of 20–49 years.

Gambling habits (PGSI)	Football %	Ice hockey %	Floorball %	Basketball %	Total %	Swedish population* %
Males, n	111	113	65	26	315	2404
Non-gambling	23.5	22.0	16.8	49.0	23.7	36.1
Non- problem gambling	63.6	65.3	65.5	50.0	63.5	52.8
Low risk gambling	5.6	7.4	8.0	0.2	6.3	7.1
At risk for gambling problems	7.3	5.3	9.7	0.8	6.5	4.0
Females, n	12	44	17	4	77	2255
Non-gambling	52.1	45.3	25.9	100.0	45.0	46.5
Non- problem gambling	47.1	48.0	74.1	0.0	51.1	49.6
Low risk gambling	0.0	2.8	0.0	0.0	1.6	2.7
At risk for gambling problems	0.8	3.9	0.0	0.0	2.3	1.2

*Personal communication with the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

Table 6. Associations among the athletes (N = 1393) between problem gambling and 18 predictor variables divided into two blocks; results of two proportional odds models: single-block model and full model.

Outcome variable
Problem gambling according to the PGSI^1 divided into non-problem gambling, low risk gambling problem, at risk for gambling problems
	Model I		Model II
Predictor variables	Coefficient	Standard error	Coefficient	Standard error	OR
Gambling is important to my teammates	0.243**	0.093	0.145	0.100	1.16
We often talk about gambling during training	0.532***	0.105	0.502***	0.108	1.65
Our coaches have a positive attitude towards gambling	–0.195*	0.089	–0.220*	0.099	0.80
My sports club has the following attitude towards gambling
Non-permissive attitude (ref)
No attitude (no talk about gambling in the club)	0.164	0.211	0.137	0.220	1.15
Permissive attitude	0.318	0.372	0.343	0.378	1.41
Gambling companies encourage gambling among athletes	0.579**	0.212	0.457*	0.215	1.58
I believe that my own games should be subjected to gambling by gambling companies	–0.108	0.198	–0.120	0.209	0.89
I have gambled on my own game during the last 12 months	1.355**	0.395	1.209**	0.397	3.35
Someone I know has gambled on their own game during the last 12 months	0.539*	0.198	0.514*	0.205	1.67
Someone in my acquaintance (inside my sport) has or has had a gambling problem	0.336	0.233	0.176	0.236	1.19
Age in years			–0.106	0.138	0.90
Brought up outside Sweden	-	-	–0.265	0.536	0.77
I live alone	-	-	–0.155	0.219	0.86
I am being paid by the sports club
Nothing (ref)
Part-time	-	-	0.064	0.294	1.07
Full-time	-	-	0.421	0.335	1.52
I have not been able to exercise because of injury/illness	-	-	–0.207	0.213	0.81
I have limited socialization with people outside the sport	-	-	–0.238	0.190	0.79
Gambling is important among my current family members	-	-	0.506***	0.131	1.66
Someone in my acquaintance (outside my sport) has or has had a gambling problem	-	-	0.595**	0.197	1.81
Alcohol consumption according to the AUDIT-C^2	-	-	0.140**	0.053	1.15

***p < .001

**p < .01

*p < .05

^aPGSI = Problem Gambling Severity Index

^bAUDIT-C = Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test – Consumption.