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(NewsNation) — Studies have shown that service members are more likely to struggle with alcohol and substance abuse issues as a result of the trauma experienced during service.

Now, new data has revealed military members are also more than twice as likely to have a gambling addiction, which could pose a threat to the country’s national security.

A Rutgers University study shows service members are more than twice as likely to become problem gamblers than the general population.

A patient chart analysis at one Veteran Affairs medical center found that 64% of patients say gambling was the reason behind at least one suicide attempt.

‘It feels like the only way out’

“I’ve had four (suicide attempts). Now, it has been many many years since I have even thought about it, but in the throws of the addiction … when you are taught to tough everything out and figure everything out, (but) you can’t figure it out or defeat it, it feels like the only way out,” U.S. Army veteran Dave Yeager said.

Yeager told NewsNation that he suffered from a gambling addiction while serving overseas in South Korea, funneling downtime and anxiety on military base slot machines.

He ended up losing his military rank twice, and his first marriage failed.

Slot machines on base

There are at least 3,000 slot machines on American military bases overseas that generate more than $100 million each year.

The military says that having the slots on base is in the name of “morale, welfare and recreation.”

Yeager said it comes at the cost of service members’ lives or quality of life, and could even come at the cost of national security.

“What’s going to happen is if you let this go long enough, we are going to pay in blood,” Yeager said. “I think it’s only a matter of time before you hear about the person who gave away secrets or the noncommissioned officer who took his own life or his family’s life because this got so out of control.”

Lawmakers take action

Yeager is not the only one with those concerns.

In 2018, lawmakers from both parties said they believed the number of problem gamblers in the military could pose a potential national security risk, making service members susceptible to blackmail or worse.

They introduced the Gambling Addiction Prevention (GAP) Act in 2019 and the GRID Act this past year. However, there has been little traction with them, and neither has been signed into law.

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.