The Dutch instant lottery: prevalence and correlates of at‐risk playing

After a long and contentious political debate, the instant lottery zvas iiitrodueed in the Netherlands in 1994. One of the eondmons for allowing the introduction zvas thai an evaluation study sJiould be conducted zvith regard to possible negative side effeets of the instant lotteiy in tenns of excessive playing or addiction. This artiele reports on the mam results of this evaluation study. In a random sa)fiplc of 4497 instant lolteiy players, at-nsk players zvere differentiated from reereative players on the basis of level of involve met it in the Distant lotteiy, impaired control and the experienced negative eofisequenees of playing. Of the sample, 4.1 ''o eould be elassified as an at~nsk player. Actual problems resultuig from playing in tJie Distant lotteiy tvere experienced by 0. 7% of the players. At-risk players and reereative players did not only differ substantially in their plaving behaviour, but also zvith regard to their socio-economic background, playing motivation, participation ut other games of ehanee, and involvement DI aleohol use and use of manjuana. To sumnianze, at-nsk plavers zvere more likely to eomefrom a poor soeio-eeonomic backgwundy to play the Distant lottery zvith a ne,^ative plaving motivation, to be heavily involved in other forms of gambling, to have used marijuana and to drink alcohol