The Influence of Alcohol Consumption on Gambling: Do the Laboratory Study Findings Generalize to Natural Environments?

A recent meta-analysis of laboratory studies on the effects of acute alcohol consumption on risk-taking did not support that acute alcohol consumption increased risk-taking. Questions about whether this finding generalizes to those gambling in naturalistic settings remain. Therefore, we examined the gambling behavior of frequent gamblers who did and did not consume alcohol while gambling. Participants were 769 weekly gamblers (66% male) who were U.S. residents and at least 18 years old. Participants recruited via MTurk completed measures through the Qualtrics survey platform. Significant predictors of gambling under the influence of alcohol were drinking days per month and PGSI score. A linear regression model predicting percentage of time spent gambling under the influence of alcohol revealed that gambling days per week, gambling hours per day, PGSI score, and drinking days per month were significant predictors. Finally, significant predictors of spending at least 50% of gambling time gambling under the influence of alcohol included: gambling hours per day, PGSI score, and drinking days per month. These findings were consistent with the recent meta-analysis of laboratory studies. However, finding that gambling disorder symptoms and overall rates of alcohol consumption were related to gambling under the influence of alcohol replicated the frequently found relation of alcohol problems among those who also exhibit gambling problems.