BACKGROUND We sought to determine by meta-analysis the relationship between drinking alcohol and the risk of gastric cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS A systematic Medline search was performed to identify all published reports of drinking alcohol and the associated risk of gastric cancer. Initially we retrieved 2,494 studies, but after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, only ten studies were found to be eligible for our meta-analysis. RESULTS Our meta-analysis showed that alcohol consumption elevated the risk of gastric cancer with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.39 (95% CI 1.20-1.61). Additionally, subgroup analysis showed that only a nested case-control report from Sweden did not support this observation. Subgroup analysis of moderate drinking and heavy drinking also confirmed that drinking alcohol increased the risk of gastric cancer. Publication bias analysis (Begg's and Egger's tests) showed p values were more than 0.05, suggesting that the 10 articles included in our analysis did not have a publication bias. CONCLUSIONS The results from this meta-analysis support the hypothesis that alcohol consumption can increase the risk of gastric cancer; suggesting that effective moderation of alcohol drinking may reduce the risk of gastric cancer.