Participation in gambling is influenced by individual characteristics that affect people’s willingness to gamble. The availability of and exposure to gambling opportunities can also influence gambling participation. This study analyzed how individual factors and availability of gambling opportunities influence the probability of starting to gamble. The researchers used data on 5,956 adults collected through a 2015 gambling prevalence survey in Spain. The researchers analyzed the findings across three time periods that marked successive expansion of legal gambling availability in Spain. They found that younger generations had a higher probability of starting to gamble. Those with higher education levels were more likely to start gambling than those with lower or no educational levels. There were also gender differences in the inclination to start gambling. Men started gambling at an earlier age than women. Both men and women were more likely to start gambling than before. But the likelihood of starting to gamble increased more for women than men over the three time periods.
