The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The WAGER, Vol 4(13) - Crime & Punishment

The Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics is an easy-to-read digest of crime indices published annually by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. The most recent edition, released in November of last year, covers the period between October 1, 1995 and September 30, 1996. The complete document is over 100 pages in length; the information in the present table is merely a fraction of what is available. The table below compares federally prosecuted gambling crimes to other selected offenses. Examples of federal gambling crimes include interstate transporting of wagering paraphernalia and the possession of gambling devices. Sources: 1 Bureau... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 4(12) - Tax Time

As millions of Americans pore over a seemingly endless sea of tax code and regulations this month, they can add this late-breaking legal decision to their repertoire of IRS knowledge: Pathological gambling does not relieve one of income reporting responsibility. In January, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling barring testimony concerning the cognitive distortion and denial experienced by pathological gamblers. The defendent, William Scholl, is a former Arizona superior court judge with a gambling problem. At one point, his combined casino debts totalled $163,000. Cash transactions in excess of $10,000 generate an IRS paper trail,... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 4(11) - Gender-Based & Culture-Bound

As frequent sit-com allusions support, the dorm-room poster of dogs playing poker has become a pop culture totem of American masculinity unbridled by common notions of taste. The poster depicts dogs sitting around a poker table surrounded by pipes, liquor, and, in one version, a poodle cocktail waitress. Pop culture, it seems, associates poker playing with traditional maleness. No similar image exists of female canines. To what extent is gambling linked to or embedded in traditional gender role ideology? Little research has been conducted in this area. However, by looking at parallel investigations in the study of alcohol, perhaps some... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 4(10) - Opportunities Knock?

An increase in the number of gambling venues in a given area does not necessarily lead to an increase in the prevalence of pathological gambling. If pathological gamblers participate solely in illicit gambling activities, then it is possible that a doubling or even tripling of legal gambling opportunities would have little or no effect on prevalence. Campbell & Lester (1999) set out to investigate this matter by examining gambling in Louisiana. The authors chose the number of Gamblers Anonymous groups and groups per capita as their dependent variables, and parishes as their units of analysis. They limited their analysis to... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 4(9) - Measuring Suicide: Methodology Matters

Is there a link between gambling and suicide? A definitive answer cannot be found in anecdotal data; rather, large-scale epidemiological research must be conducted. Even with such research, the results can be confusing and difficult to interpret. Two research teams, led by David Phillips* and Richard McCleary,** respec­tively, set out to investigate this problem. It should be noted that the study of the latter author was commissioned by the American Gaming Association and the former by the Sutherland Foundation and Alfred A. and Marian E. Smith Foundation. Both studies employ very different methodologies and report very different findings. A few... Read more →