The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The WAGER Vol. 5(25) - A Center of Attention

Last year, the WAGER examined trends in gambling studies research across three decades [WAGER 4(40)]. Sprock and Herrmann (2000) used a similar approach to examine the frequencies with which specific psychiatric disorders occur in the literature [1]. They conducted a query of the PsychInfo database, searching for journal articles published between 1991 and 1997. Major depressive episodes and schizophrenia appeared most frequently in the database, with 12,749 and 10,722 articles, respectively. Pathological gambling disorder appeared 219 times in the literature, placing it near the center of the distribution of frequencies. That depression should be such a popular topic of inquiry... Read more →

The WAGER Vol. 5(24) - Probable Cause

Probability theory is the basis for both the academic study of statistics and the practice of gambling. Mathematicians and gamblers alike have devoted entire lifetimes to improving their understanding of probability. Probability is so deeply ingrained in our daily lives that we fail to notice its presence at all. A 30% chance of rain... 10 to 1 odds for the Red Sox winning tonight's game... A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... All involve the fundamental rules of probability. But just what are these rules? How to define probability is a matter of debate among mathematicians. The most common, however, states that If an... Read more →

The WAGER Vol. 5(23) - Gambling's Secret Agent

Epidemiology can be defined as "the study of the distribution and determinants of disease frequency [1]". Historically, epidemiologists were concerned primarily with infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. But in recent years, the field has expanded to include the study of psychopathology and social phenomena. That the gaze of epidemiology has fallen on gambling should be of little surprise. The classic infectious disease model on which much of modern epidemiology is based has been illustrated by Mauser and Kramer (1985)[2], and is presented in the graphic below. The model is reasonably simple, and can be easily applied to a... Read more →

The WAGER Vol. 5(22) - The Periodical Table

Continuing the mission begun in WAGER 4(50), from time to time, the WAGER presents lists of gambling-related resources that may be of interest to our readers. This week, we provide brief descriptions of some scholarly journals that publish articles on gambling issues. In many of these journals, gambling-related articles are infrequent. Only "peer-reviewed" journals are listed; that is, all articles published in the journals below have been read, reviewed and critiqued by experts in the field. Regrettably, most scholarly journals are quite expensive and may be difficult to find outside of universities. Hopefully, these barriers will diminish or disappear as... Read more →