Drink more, bet more, spend more: Examining who engages in simultaneous drinking while sports betting and impact on betting behaviour.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There is a shared culture between sports betting and drinking alcohol, yet there is a lack of studies investigating predictors of simultaneous alcohol use, and whether drinking carries increased risk of gambling-related harms among sports bettors.

METHODS

We examined four groups of Canadian sports bettors: (1) no alcohol use (n = 70), concurrent use (n = 429), (3) sometimes-simultaneous alcohol use (n = 211), and (4) always/almost always simultaneous alcohol use (n = 198). Participants completed measures of demographic characteristics, sports gambling-related variables, alcohol problems, gambling problems, and emotion dysregulation.

RESULTS

Any simultaneous alcohol use was associated with younger age and gender diversity compared to concurrent and no alcohol use. Bisexuality was specifically linked to always simultaneous alcohol use. Always simultaneous alcohol use was also associated with higher alcohol and gambling problems compared to sometimes simultaneously drinking alcohol, despite the sometimes-simultaneous drinking group reporting higher sports betting frequency. Simultaneous alcohol use was also associated with a greater number of bets made and more money spent.

DISCUSSION AND

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that simultaneously drinking alcohol while sports betting is linked to making more bets and spending more money on bets. Demographic and psychological determinants of simultaneous drinking were generally consistent with the rest of the literature except that the group which always simultaneously drank alcohol reported lower sports gambling frequency, but greater alcohol and gambling problems. This highlights the harms associated with always simultaneously drinking while betting and also warrants future research to better understand these behaviours.