Problem gambling remains a festering issue at the heart of the US military branch, with its impact on combat readiness and operational capability not fully understood. Yet, there have been more voices calling for an honest attempt to quantify and address the problem.
A recent data set analyzed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has highlighted some of the deficiencies in the current approach to establishing gambling-related harm and disorder in active-duty personnel. For the most part, this approach relies on self-identification, but many are unwilling to openly advertise that they have an issue.
Some military members who gamble experience negative emotions
GAO analyzed data from the Army’s2024 Periodic Health Assessment to get a better understanding of the issue. A total of 310,482 Army service members participated in the survey, of whom 15,039 said that they had gambled in the previous 12 months. Of those, 402 (2.7%) reported experiencing anxiety, restlessness, or irritability when trying to cut down.
GAO has looked into the potential knock-on impact on gambling within the military. For example, the auditors have found that there is no clear evidence whether security clearances are revoked or denied because of gambling addiction.
In the meantime, the Defense Health Agency claims that there are about 185 service members who have identified that they have a gambling disorder, but these numbers are not nearly as exhaustive as they should be, precisely because they rely on people admitting openly that they have a problem with potentially serious consequences for their career advancement.
Army Lt. Col. Isaac Lopez, who is a clinical psychologist with the Defense Health Agency-Public Health, has been one of the people to highlight the issue, raising awareness for the fact that personnel who also suffer from gambling disorders are more prone to more significant problems, such as substance abuse, possibly having an impact on combat readiness, although no official data can bear out this claim.
People who do not seek treatment or speak about their problem are not part of the statistic
The GAO also warned that gambling is widely available to military members, and servicemen and women may be more likely than the general population to develop problems with the activity.
The 185 cases of servicemen cited as examples of gambling addiction are also taken with a grain of salt by the GAO, with Kristy Williams, a defense, capabilities, and management director, saying:
"What that does not include is any individual who did not seek treatment from a medical provider and possibly any that might have sought help but did not meet the diagnostic threshold."
The military does not yet appear to have a complete grasp of the issue and what measures ought to be taken. At the same time, the proliferation of on-base slot machines continues to stoke the problem within its ranks.
