Il gioco d’azzardo nella Provincia autonoma di Trento: sperimentazione di un modulo aggiuntivo PASSI (2014)

Since its liberalisation in Italy, gambling and gambling-related problems are an increasing public health issue much debated among public health experts, social workers, political decision makers, and the general public. In 2014 a survey based on telephone interviews of a representative sample of the adult population (age 18-69, n=498) of the Autonomous Province of Trento was conducted by embedding a special module in the questionnaire of the behavioural risk factor surveillance system PASSI. Main objectives were the collection of data on the prevalence of pathological or problem gambling, broken down by socio-economic, demographic and other health related variables. Compared to the perception in the public opinion the results show a relatively low prevalence of problem gambling (3,4% of the whole population, 11% of the gamblers), a modest amount of time spent by gambling, and little knowledge of the public health services available for problem gambling. Due to sample size and low prevalence of problem gambling it was not possible to perform subgroup analyses. On local level the usefulness of the integration of the gambling module in the PASSI questionnaire seems very limited, on national level it remains debatable.