How many children have parents with gambling disorder - a Germany-based estimate.

Background: Parental gambling disorder has detrimental financial, psychological, physiological, familial, and behavioral implications for the offspring, making these children highly vulnerable. In Germany, population-based estimates on how many minor children have parents with gambling disorder are lacking; thus, the immediacy of need for corresponding (public) health care policies remains unknown.

Methods: Based on the population-representative German Gambling Survey 2023, we estimated the number of children having parents with gambling disorder, including estimates for rates at each parental gambling disorder severity level (mild, moderate, severe). Both cohabiting children and separate living children were considered. To extrapolate lower and upper bounds of estimates, data on number of parents in the household and average number of children was combined with official population statistics.

Results: Of 282 participants with gambling disorder, 46.8% (n = 132) cohabit with 1.55 children on average; 16.7% (n = 47) are parents of 1.51 separate living children on average. Therefore, in Germany 574,079 to 604,966 children have a parent with gambling disorder, with about 84.0% of them (482,076 to 508,712) cohabiting with the gambling parent. The likelihood of cohabiting decreases with increasing gambling disorder severity (mild: 97.7%; moderate: 85.0%; severe: 72.2%).

Discussion: In Germany about 1 in 25 children has a parent with gambling disorder. Given that parental gambling disorder is an established risk factor for developing own gambling problems, more comprehensive addiction care and health policy are needed to address this issue. Integrated care and counselling offers targeting both gambling parents and their children may be a promising starting point. Special attention should be paid to separate living children in these approaches.