Double trouble: the risks of mixing alcohol and sports wagering
UNLV study finds binge drinking is disproportionately more common among sports bettors than non-gamblers or those who don't wager on sports
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UNLV PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AND ADDICTIONS EXPERT SHANE W. KRAUS PARTNERED ON RESEARCH INTO THE LINKS BETWEEN SPORTS GAMBLING AND BINGE DRINKING.
view moreCREDIT: BECCA SCHWARTZ/UNLV
It turns out that money isn’t the only thing sports gamblers are risking. According to a new study, bettors who wager on sporting events, esports, and daily fantasy sports are much more likely than other individuals to binge drink.
The findings, compiled by a research team from UNLV and the University of New Mexico, were published this week in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Over the course of three weeks in spring 2022, researchers surveyed more than 4,300 adults across the U.S. Nearly 3,300 self-reported past year alcohol use, while about 1,800 identified themselves as gamblers who had bet on sports in the past year.
Researchers found that sports gamblers were 1.9 times more likely to report consuming an excess of alcohol — defined as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women at a single time — when compared with nongamblers and gamblers who don't bet on sports.
The study bolsters previous research into the association between substance misuse and sports wagering. Sports gamblers often use substances while gambling and tend to be more inclined toward risk taking, which researchers fear may also translate to bettors’ alcohol habits.
“Our study suggests that sports bettors appear to use alcohol in particularly risky ways," said study co-author Shane W. Kraus, a professor of psychology who serves as director of the UNLV Behavioral Addictions Lab. "Therefore, more education is needed to inform people around the possible risks of heavy alcohol use while also wagering on sports."
About the study
“Binge Drinking Among Sports Gamblers,” by Joshua B. Grubbs of the University of New Mexico and Shane W. Kraus of UNLV, was published April 1, 2024 in JAMA Network Open.
JOURNAL
JAMA
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Survey
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Binge Drinking Among Sports Gamblers
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
1-Apr-2024
COI STATEMENT
Dr Grubbs reported receiving research grant funding from the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio outside the submitted work. Dr Kraus reported receiving personal fees from New York Council on Problem Gambling, the International Center for Responsible Gaming, the California Council on Problem Gambling, and Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Academy, serving as editor-in-chief for Taylor & Francis journals, and receiving Summer research support from the Nevada Project on Problem Gambling during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.
Even moderate alcohol usage during pregnancy linked to birth abnormalities, UNM researchers find
University of New Mexico researchers have found that even low to moderate alcohol use by pregnant patients may contribute to subtle changes in their babies’ prenatal development, including lower birth length and a shorter duration of gestation.
In a new paper published in the journal Alcohol Clinical & Experimental Research, a team led by Ludmila Bakhireva, MD, PhD, MPH, professor and assistant dean for Clinical and Translational Research in the UNM College of Pharmacy, also reported some sex-related differences in the effects of drinking during pregnancy on the developing baby.
“In exploratory analyses, the effect on gestational age was more pronounced in male infants, and for birth length it actually was stronger in females,” Bakhireva said. She cautioned that these effects should be interpreted with caution because of the study’s limited statistical power to conduct sex-specific analyses and the challenges of accounting for other contributing factors.
The paper reported on three prospective studies conducted at UNM over the course of 10 years that followed 281 participants, most of whom were recruited in the second trimester of their pregnancies and then followed, along with their children, for some time afterward, she said.
There is a good deal of research on the prenatal effects of heavy alcohol use, usually defined as 14 drinks per week, or binge drinking, defined as four drinks or more per occasion, Bakhireva said.
“We know quite a bit from these earlier studies of heavy alcohol use about the effect on prenatal outcomes, especially preterm delivery and growth restriction, as well as neurodevelopmental outcomes, but we specifically focused on more moderate alcohol exposure because it’s much more prevalent,” she said.
Early pregnancy is a critical period for the formation of organs in the developing fetus, making it a particularly vulnerable window for alcohol exposure, Bakhireva said.
“Almost everybody drinks before they know they are pregnant, and risky drinking before pregnancy is predictive of drinking later on,” she said. “That’s a unique aspect of the study. We carefully looked at the patterns of drinking around conception and early pregnancy.”
Most of the participants substantially reduced their drinking or stopped altogether once they learned they were pregnant, Bakhireva said. Even with reduced alcohol there were some deficits seen in both male and female infants, however.
She emphasizes that larger studies that combine samples across the country are needed to replicate the findings and examine sex-specific effects further.
Bakhireva is the principal investigator of the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study at UNM, part of a national initiative that will recruit 7,500 parent-child pairs and follow them for up to 10 years. “With that type of multi-site study, we’ll have sufficient power to look at the effects of different patterns and timing of alcohol use in even a more nuanced way,” she said.
The paper underscores messaging from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – that no amount of drinking during pregnancy is safe, she said.
“I think this study, as well as prior preclinical studies, show that even moderate alcohol use might have negative effects. The degree of negative effects might vary, and it is important to address alcohol use without the stigma often associated with it, but overall, if we try to encourage abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy, we will maximize positive health and developmental outcomes for the children.”
JOURNAL
Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Dose–response effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on perinatal outcomes
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
30-Mar-2024
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