Differences in the psychological characteristics and gambling behaviors of sports bettors and non-sports bettors were examined with a view to identifying predictors of problem gambling severity. A survey was completed by 1,280 participants, 596 of whom had placed bets on a sporting event in the last year. We found that sports bettors are at greater risk of problem gambling due to differences in attitudes towards gambling, personality traits, thinking styles, erroneous cognitions, and gambling motivations. Moreover, our findings suggest that the difference between individuals who bet on sports and those who do not is more quantitative than qualitative. A stratified stochastic search variable selection analysis by type of bettor revealed similar important predictors of problem gambling for both sports bettors and non-sports bettors; however, the association between the predictors and problem gambling was stronger for sports bettors. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that preventative methods and interventions for problem gambling should be targeted as a function of whether individuals bet on sports.

研究了体育博彩玩家和非体育博彩玩家的心理特征和赌博行为的差异，以确定问题赌博严重程度的预测因素。1,280 名参与者完成了一项调查，其中 596 人在去年对体育赛事下注。我们发现，由于对赌博的态度、性格特征、思维方式、错误认知和赌博动机的差异，体育博彩者面临更大的问题赌博风险。此外，我们的研究结果表明，投注体育的人和不投注体育的人之间的差异更多的是定量而不是定性。按投注者类型进行的分层随机搜索变量选择分析揭示了体育博彩者和非体育博彩者相似的问题赌博的重要预测因子；然而，对于体育博彩者来说，预测变量与问题赌博之间的关联更强。总体而言，这项研究的结果表明，问题赌博的预防方法和干预措施应作为个人是否投注体育的函数。