The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The WAGER, Vol 2(39) - Political Contributions by the Gaming Industry

The impact of political contributions is unclear. Neither the gaming industry nor its opponents have had the impact of their contributions examined. Mother Jones magazine recently conducted a study to determine the extent of the gaming industry’s political spending*. Investigators estimated dollar amounts of political spending for 32 states plus Washington D.C. These estimates were based on either searching databases or retreiving other sources of data. No data on political spending was available for the other 18 states. This study found that a total of $100 million dollars has been spent on political contributions in the past five years by... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 2(38) - Outcomes of Problem Gambling Harm-reduction Program

A sample of 114 randomly selected clients participating in The Donwood Problem Gambling Program from April 1995 to March 1997 were assessed at one- and two-year follow-up points*. Clients entering the program in 1995 are considered the “1995 group” while those entering in 1996 are the “1996 group”. The components of the harm-reduction program include brief solution-focused counseling, educational workshops, and life skills groups. The assessment, conducted via telephone by trained volunteers, consisted of two questionnaires: (1) a gambling behavior survey exploring gambling frequency and dollar amounts gambled, and (2) a quality of life survey on eleven life areas. The... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 2(37) - Coping Skills Among Formerly Homeless Pathological Gamblers

Homeless individuals struggle with a variety of problems other than homelessness. For example, high rates of substance abuse and its medical, social and psychological complications, depression, and other mental health disorders are found among the homeless population*. A recent study** hypothesized that among a sample of formerly homeless substance-misusing veterans, those with gambling problems would have fewer coping skills and higher negative affect than those without a gambling problem. A sample of 154 formerly homeless substance-misusing veterans was assessed six months after discharge from the VA substance abuse treatment program. Respondents with a score of 5 or more on the... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 2(36) - Cutoff vs. Continuum

Historically, two distinct approaches have been used to report on the criteria for “pathological gambling”. The more common approach is the use of a cutoff score. That is, on a scale made up of a number of items, if an individual meets a predetermined number of criteria (e.g., answers affirmatively to 5 or more items), that individual is considered to have a pathological gambling disorder. The second, less popular approach is the continuum. In this approach, disordered gambling is considered to be not a dichotomous phenomenon (i.e., is or isn’t pathological), but rather exists on a continuous scale. A lower... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 2(35) - Gamblers in the Military

The fifth in a series of surveys of active duty military personnel was conducted by the Research Triangle Institute in 1992 under the direction of the Department of Defense to examine substance abuse and health behaviors*. The 1992 survey was the first to include questions about problem gambling. Researchers hypothesized that problems related to excessive gambling could affect the financial and psychological well-being of military personnel, which could have a negative effect on military readiness. The majority of the 16,395 respondents were male (85%), white (66.9%), educated through high school or beyond (99.5%), age 34 or younger (76.3%), and married... Read more →