A new survey finds a slight drop in the number of Iowans who reported gambling and also in those who experienced some symptoms of problem gambling. The survey by the Iowa Department of Public Health and the University of Northern Iowa Center for Social and Behavioral Research shows about 294-thousand adult Iowans fell into the problem gambling area — which is three percent less than the 2013 survey. The program manager of the Iowa Gambling Treatment Program, Eric Pruess, says the numbers really show little movement.
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Overall one-point-six million Iowans said they had gambled in the last year, compared to one-point-eight in the 2013 survey. Pruess focuses on the 13 percent who said they had a problem with gambling.
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The survey finds the most common gambling activities in the state were lottery (38%) and raffle tickets (37%) followed by scratch tickets and pull tabs (32%), slot machines (24%), and card games with friends or others (not at casinos) (14%).
