Exploring the prevalence of gambling harm among active duty military personnel: a systematic scoping review

The prevalence of gambling harm among active duty military personnel is a largely unexplored topic. With different forms of social gambling often found within (or in close proximity to) military bases around the world, understanding the extent of gambling activities and consequent harms occurring within military contexts warrants further attention. This review aims to identify, describe and thematically synthesise published literature on gambling harm and related issues among active duty military personnel. Scoping review methods were applied in order to understand this relatively under-researched population and understand appropriate avenues for future research. A systematic multi-database text word search, incorporating search results from Scopus, Pubmed, Web of Science, PsychInfo, and the Journal Military Medicine, was conducted. A total of 11 sources met inclusion criteria, all originating from the United States of America. The results suggest a distinct gap in the current international literature on this topic. Despite gambling’s long and colourful association with defence downtime, research into gambling harm prevalence rates in relation to what could be considered a high-risk group is limited. Findings reveal that strategies to identify and address gambling harm within this population are severely lacking from the published literature and non-existent outside North America. Implications for understanding and addressing gambling harm among active duty personnel and directions for future research are discussed.