Pathological Gambling (PG) tends to be a heterogeneous disorder where patients differ with type and severity of gambling behaviour, psychiatric co-morbidity, family history, sex and age of onset. Age of disease onset in PG varies significantly, with many individuals having onset during childhood and adolescence and others in various stages of adulthood. Previous studies have demonstrated that age of onset is an important characteristic for a better understanding of the PG heterogeneity.

(1) To analyze differences in sociodemographic aspects between early-onset PG and non early-onset PG, (2) to study whether early-onset PG is associated with specific psychiatric diagnosis in axis I and II.

We used data from a large and nationally representative community sample of United States (US) adults, the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). We selected age 25 years as a threshold for early-onset PG.

Individuals with early-onset PG were more likely to be male, never married, and young and to have a lower education level and individual income than non early-onset PGs. Early-onset PG were less likely to have mood disorder (OR = 0.42 (0.19 − 0.94)) and had non-significant higher odds of having substance and anxiety disorders than non early-onset. The odds of having Cluster B disorder were significantly higher among early-onset PGs than non early-onset PGs (OR = 4.11 (1,77 − 9.55)).

Our findings support that subgroups of Pathological Gambling defined by onset age have phenotypic differences.