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The rate at which a mammal becomes addicted to alcohol is affected by numerous variables, but none (it seems) moreso than a genetic expression of greater numbers of dopamine receptors on the receiving ends of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain. People with unusually high concentration of dopamine receptors in this region are known to be better candidates for addiction, not only to alcohol but to all manner of substance and behavioral process addictions.

Most alcoholics are likely to be addicts to other substances and behavioral processes, according to Shaffer, H.; LaPlante, D., La Brie, R.; et al: Toward a Syndrome Model of Addiction: Multiple Expressions, Common Etiology; in Harvard Review of Psychiatry, Vol. 12, 2004. Michael Bozarth seems to be the reigning expert on the neurobiology of all this at this time. See Bozarth, M.: Drug addiction as a psychobiological process, in Warburton, D. (ed.): Addiction controversies, London: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1990; and Bozarth, M.: Pleasure systems in the brain, in Warburton, D. (ed.), Pleasure: The politics and the reality, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.