The majority of people with a gambling addiction in Sweden are women, according to a surprising new study.
Of the 45,000 people who have enough of a gambling problem for it to be considered an addiction, almost two thirds of them (64 percent) are female, the country’s public health authority found.
That percentage has more than tripled since 2015, when females made up just 18 percent of the country’s gambling addicts, the BBC reported. It is also the first time a survey of this type has had more female than male gambling addicts, casino.org reported.
According to researchers, the increase in the number of online casinos could be contributing to the astronomical rise in female gambling addicts, Professor Anders Håkansson from Lund University told Radio Sweden.
“We have to consider the fact that the gambling market is very different now… mainly with the high proportion of gambling happening online,” he said
“Women who do seek treatment are more likely to report online casino gambling than men do.”
The survey also found that while the overall number of gamblers decreased since the last survey in 2015, the number of problem gamblers rose by 50 percent. Women made up half those considered problem gamblers.
In the US, approximately 2 million adults (1 percent) are estimated to meet the criteria for gambling addiction, and another 4-6 million (2-3 percent) would be considered problem gamblers, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling.
