Gambling addiction can be inherited equally by sons and daughters: Study

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJun 10 2010

Dr Ananya Mandal, MD

Gambling is linked to a gene that is passed on through generations and a new study claims that it is passed on to both sons and daughters alike. The study published in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry says, that genes rule at least 50 percent of a persons propensity to gamble irrespective of sex. Genes have been linked earlier to gambling but this is the first time women are also said to inherit the trait.

The study conducted by scientists from University of Missouri-Columbia and Australia's Queensland Institute of Medical Research involved about 2,700 women and 2,000 men from the Australian Twin Registry. These twins were questioned and researchers compared gambling data between identical twins who have the same genetic makeup and fraternal twins who have shared genes like any other siblings. The findings show that if one twin had a gambling problem, an identical twin was more likely to develop one compared to a fraternal twin said study co-author Wendy Slutske. The authors wrote, “This study represents a major step forward in that it establishes for the first time that genes are as important in the etiology of disordered gambling in women as they are in men.”

They added that more research was needed to find the extent of social and environmental influence on gambling behavior. The findings showed that almost all study members gambled but men were more likely than women to be gambling addicts (1 percent women compared to 3 percent men gambling addicts). Also gambling addiction is five times more common in Australia that in the US the researchers said.

They conclude that gambling addiction might occur when a person is “exposed to a problem gambling role model and inherits problem gambling susceptibility genes.” Slutske says that there is probably no specific “gambling gene” as such and says that “Like alcoholism, problem gambling is a complex disorder…The answer will be in a collection of genes, maybe 10 or 100, we don't know how many, but each gene will increase the risk slightly for developing those problems.”