Veterans and Gambling: A Hidden, Higher Risk

The number nobody is screening for

I served, so I know the drill at a VA appointment. A clinician asks about depression. About PTSD. About alcohol, drugs, and thoughts of suicide. Those screens are routine, standardized, built into the visit.

In my experience, one thing almost never on that list is gambling.

That gap is what sent me looking for the numbers, because I wanted to know how big this actually is for people like us. The numbers turned out to be worse than I expected.

The gap matters, because gambling problems are not rare in this population. They are concentrated in it. A national study of U.S. military veterans published in the Journal of Gambling Studies (Stefanovics, Potenza, Tsai, and Pietrzak, 2023) found that 4.9% of veterans screened positive for at-risk or problematic gambling in the past year, and that this group carried a heavy load of co-occurring harm: greater trauma burden, more psychiatric diagnoses, more alcohol and drug use disorders, more suicidal ideation, more homelessness, and more arrests than veterans who did not gamble problematically.

That 4.9% sits well above general-population estimates. The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that about 1% of U.S. adults meet the criteria for a severe gambling problem in a given year, with another 2 to 3% experiencing mild or moderate problems. Researchers who study the military put the gap more bluntly. In July 2025, Task and Purpose reported that researchers believe gambling disorder is roughly 3 to 4 times more common in military populations than among civilians, and that the official Department of Defense screening data, which once put active-duty prevalence at just 0.06%, is so low that one researcher called it "an incomprehensibly silly number."

The story of veterans and gambling is, in large part, the story of a problem the system is not built to see.

Why veterans are more at risk

Elevated gambling risk in veterans is not a coincidence or a character flaw. It maps onto the specific burdens of military service, and the clinical research is fairly consistent about the drivers.

Trauma and PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the strongest correlates of gambling problems in veterans. Across the literature, veterans with PTSD have been found to be several times more likely to meet problem-gambling criteria than veterans without it. The mechanism is recognizable to anyone in recovery: a study of veterans found that problem gambling among those with PTSD often functioned as a way to escape current distress, such as a dysphoric mood. Gambling becomes an off-switch for an unbearable feeling. The fast pace, the noise, the total absorption of a betting app or a slot machine quiets the alarm system for a while. Then the feeling comes back worse, and the cycle tightens.

Combat trauma and brain injury. Traumatic brain injury and combat exposure, both disproportionately common in veterans, are repeatedly associated with disordered gambling. TBI can blunt impulse control and decision-making, exactly the faculties that disordered gambling exploits.

Depression and isolation. Depression is woven through veteran gambling research. Gambling and depression feed each other: low mood drives the search for escape, and the aftermath of chasing losses deepens the low mood. We cover that loop in depth in our guide on gambling addiction and depression. Add the social isolation many veterans feel after leaving a tight-knit unit, and you have a person who is both hurting and alone, the conditions under which a betting app becomes a constant companion.

Substance use. Gambling rarely travels alone. A 2024 study in the Journal of Gambling Studies (Stefanovics, Potenza, Tsai, and Pietrzak) of more than 4,000 veterans found large groups with co-occurring substance use and gambling, and that veterans with both reported the highest burden of all: more adverse childhood experiences and higher odds of suicidality and self-injury than veterans with either problem alone.

Transition, structure, and access. Military life is structured, with a steady paycheck and long stretches of downtime. The transition out of that structure is destabilizing, and the first years after separation are a known high-risk window. Gambling is also unusually accessible to service members and veterans: on installations in some settings, and now, since the 2018 Supreme Court decision that opened the door to legal sports betting, on a phone in any of the dozens of states where mobile sportsbooks operate. Easy access plus boredom plus a brain primed for escape is a combustible mix. If sports betting is your particular trap, our guide on how to stop sports betting is a place to start.

Why this is a big deal: gambling and the veteran suicide rate

This is the part that stopped me cold, and it is the reason I think every veteran should see these numbers.

Start with where we already stand, before gambling enters the picture at all. According to the VA's 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, in 2022 the suicide rate among veterans was 34.7 per 100,000, roughly double the 17.1 per 100,000 rate among non-veteran U.S. adults, an average of about 17.6 veterans lost every day. We are already one of the highest-risk groups in the country. That is the baseline we carry around.

Now add gambling. Disordered gambling is independently associated with suicide risk, and the association is not small. A 2025 meta-epidemiology study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research pooled high-quality observational studies covering more than 500,000 people and found gambling disorder tied to significantly higher odds of suicidal ideation (about 1.6 times), suicide attempts (about 2.9 times across the pooled studies), and death by suicide (about 8.5 times in the pooled mortality analysis). That risk sits on top of whatever a veteran is already carrying.

Put the two together. We start at roughly double the national suicide rate, and then gambling disorder stacks a potent, independent risk factor on top of that, one the VA does not routinely screen for. You do not have to multiply the numbers to feel the weight of it: gambling disorder lands hardest on the exact population that can least afford another risk factor, and it does so in a blind spot where no one is looking.

I want to be careful with this. It is not saying gambling causes veteran suicides. It is saying that gambling disorder is a serious, treatable risk factor that compounds a danger we are already living with, and that not asking the question leaves it invisible until a crisis arrives.

The financial dimension is part of this. Gambling disorder is uniquely destructive to money, and money trouble is a known proximal stressor in suicide. In the national veteran sample, problem gambling tracked with homelessness and arrests, not just diagnosis codes. A veteran can lose a home, a marriage, and a sense of identity in months. The shame that follows is its own danger, because shame keeps people silent. Rebuilding is possible, and our guide on financial recovery after gambling walks through the first steps, but the human stakes here are not abstract.

The system gap: a problem that goes unmeasured

Here is the uncomfortable core of the story. The VA and DoD have the infrastructure to catch this and largely do not use it.

A 2025 systematic review in Current Addiction Reports examined screening and assessment of gambling in military populations and found that, across 46 studies and 28 different screening tools, none were designed or validated specifically for military or veteran populations, and that screening was inconsistent where it existed at all. The review noted that lifetime gambling-disorder prevalence in military samples has ranged from roughly 2% to as high as 29% depending on the study, far above general-population estimates, and that one UK study found veterans about ten times more likely to experience problem gambling than matched non-veterans.

The screening that does happen is undermined by a structural problem: fear of career consequences. As Task and Purpose reported in July 2025, researchers say service members under-report gambling on health surveys because admitting to it can feel like a threat to their career. A clinician at the Kindbridge Research Institute described the dynamic plainly: if you say yes, you worry you lose your career, so you say no. The National Council on Problem Gambling has likewise pointed to the absence of standardized screening from branch to branch. The result is data so low it cannot be true, which then justifies not building the treatment capacity the real numbers would demand.

There is movement. The GRIT Act, reintroduced in Congress by Rep. Andrea Salinas and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, would dedicate a share of the federal sports-betting excise tax to gambling-addiction research and treatment, with provisions aimed at ensuring service members and veterans have access to prevention and treatment resources. As of this writing the bill has not become law, but it reflects a growing recognition that the post-2018 expansion of sports betting and the under-served veteran population are colliding, and that the federal government has both a tax stream and a duty here.

Until screening and treatment catch up, the practical burden falls on veterans, families, and the clinicians who think to ask. That is not fair. It is where things stand.

What helps, and where to start

Gambling disorder is treatable. The DSM-5 classifies it as a behavioral addiction (312.31; ICD-10 F63.0), and recovery follows recognizable paths: it can be screened for, named, and worked on, like any other condition a veteran already gets care for. Our breakdown of the DSM-5 gambling disorder criteria explains what the diagnosis actually means.

A few concrete steps:

Ask the question the intake form skipped. We are trained to handle it, to not be the one who needs help. I understand that instinct. But gambling is worth raising directly with a VA provider, a Vet Center counselor, or any clinician, even if no one asks you first. Saying it out loud is the move that makes everything else possible. Bring it up the way you would any other symptom, because that is exactly what it is.

Treat the comorbidity, not just the gambling. For many veterans, the gambling is fused to PTSD, depression, or substance use. Effective care addresses the whole picture, not the betting in isolation. If gambling has been your escape from a feeling you could not sit with, that is a clinical pattern with clinical answers, not a moral failure.

Add friction between the urge and the bet. Recovery runs on friction: blocked apps, accounts a trusted person holds, the minutes it takes for an urge to crest and pass. Learning to catch the wave early matters, and our guide on recognizing a gambling urge walks through it. The pull to bet after a loss, the conviction that one more bet sets things right, is the trap we describe in chasing losses. Naming it as a cue, not a decision, buys the time recovery needs.

Use the resources built for this. The VA and Vet Centers can connect veterans to mental-health care, and a clinician can refer to gambling-specific treatment. Gamblers Anonymous and other peer recovery communities are open to veterans and free. You do not have to assemble this alone.

If a veteran you know is in immediate danger, do not wait. Dial 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line, staffed around the clock by people trained to help, or text 838255. For gambling specifically, the 24/7 National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER is free, confidential, and available every hour of every day. You can also build a personal plan and find meetings, clinicians, and tools at Cope Compass find-help.

The gambling crisis among veterans is large, real, and largely uncounted. A system failing to measure something does not make it less true. I went looking for these numbers because no one ever asked me about them, and because the people they describe deserve to see them. The first act of recovery, for one veteran or for all of us, is to stop looking away.

Sources

• Stefanovics, E. A., Potenza, M. N., Tsai, J., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2023). Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Recreational and At-Risk/Problematic Gambling in a National Sample of U.S. Military Veterans. Journal of Gambling Studies. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36378356/. Supports the 4.9% at-risk/problem gambling figure and associations with trauma, psychiatric diagnoses, substance use, suicidal ideation, homelessness, and arrests.
• Stefanovics, E. A., Potenza, M. N., Tsai, J., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2024). Gambling and Substance Use Disorders in U.S. Military Veterans: Prevalence, Clinical Characteristics, and Suicide Risk. Journal of Gambling Studies. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39342537/. Supports the co-occurring substance-use/gambling groups, adverse childhood experiences, and higher odds of suicidality and self-injury.
• Stefanovics, E. A., Potenza, M. N., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2017). Gambling in a National U.S. Veteran Population: Prevalence, Socio-demographics, and Psychiatric Comorbidities. Journal of Gambling Studies. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28293767/. Supports recreational and at-risk gambling prevalence and links to substance use, anxiety, depression, and trauma.
• Nieberg, P. (2025, July 3). Gambling addiction in the military may be going unnoticed, advocates warn. Task and Purpose. taskandpurpose.com/military-life/research-on-military-gambling-disorders/. Supports the 3 to 4 times higher estimate, the 0.06% DoD figure described as implausibly low, fear of career consequences, and the lack of standardized branch-to-branch screening.
• Rayner, C., Treacy, S., Dighton, G., Champion, H., & Dymond, S. (2025). Screening and Assessment of Gambling in Military Populations: A Systematic Review and Gap Analysis. Current Addiction Reports. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40429-025-00677-0. Supports the screening-tool gap, the 2% to 29% lifetime prevalence range, and the UK finding that veterans were about 10 times more likely to experience problem gambling.
• Gambling disorder and suicide risk: A meta-epidemiology study. (2025). Journal of Psychiatric Research. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395625006855. Supports the pooled odds ratios for gambling disorder and suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicide mortality across studies covering more than 500,000 people.
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (2024). 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report. mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/data-sheets/2024/2024-Annual-Report-Part-2-of-2_508.pdf and news.va.gov/137221/. Supports the 34.7 vs 17.1 per 100,000 veteran/non-veteran suicide rates for 2022 and about 17.6 veteran suicides per day.
• National Council on Problem Gambling. FAQs: What is Problem Gambling? ncpgambling.org/help-treatment/faqs-what-is-problem-gambling/. Supports the general-population estimates of about 1% severe and 2 to 3% mild or moderate gambling problems, and the National Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-GAMBLER).
• National Council on Problem Gambling. GRIT Act. ncpgambling.org/advocacy/grit-act/. Supports the description of the GRIT Act, its sports-betting excise-tax funding mechanism, and its service-member and veteran provisions.
• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Gambling Disorder, code 312.31. ICD-10 code F63.0.
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Crisis Line. Dial 988 then press 1, or text 838255. veteranscrisisline.net.