The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The WAGER, Vol. 6 (39) - I'll Play Just Once Or Twice: Control As a Successful Treatment Outcome

Pathological gambling is increasingly recognized by professional and lay communities as a mental health disorder that requires professional intervention. In addition to major therapeutic treatment strategies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalysis, and psychopharmacology, a growing number of treatment opportunities recently have been developed. For example, in June 2000, a national think tank on state-funded gambling treatment programs identified 13 states with state-funded gambling treatment programs. Similarly, the National Council on Problem Gambling, whose mission includes increasing treatment opportunities for gamblers and their families, reports 34 state-affiliated chapters across the United States. Consequently, empirical investigations of the efficacy of traditional and... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol. 6 (38) - The Call For Help: Who Uses Gambling Hotlines?

Research has attempted to determine whether individual characteristics such as gender and age make people more or less susceptible to developing problem gambling behaviors (Greenberg, Lewis, & Dodd, 1999; Wood & Griffiths, 1998). Men, for example, display a greater tendency to be problem gamblers (Greenberg et al, 1999). Similarly, a recent WAGER reported on a study demonstrating that relative to women, men tend to start gambling earlier and tend to progress to problem levels of gambling behavior less quickly. The current WAGER summarizes a study that suggested gender and age differences in gaming preferences among GamCare phone hotline callers (Griffiths,... Read more →

Op-Ed/Editorials - Court Rules Internet Gambling Is Not Illegal

Professor I. Nelson Rose, Whittier Law School, Costa Mesa, CA. A federal judge has ruled in a major decision that Internet gambling is not a crime -- sometimes. Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr., of the U.S. District Court in New Orleans issued the ruling in late February, 2001. He dismissed two test cases brought against MasterCard and Visa, allowing Web betting sites to continue to take credit cards. Judge Duval gave many reasons for throwing out the suits, including a legal conclusion that Internet gambling's main nemesis, the federal Wire Act, applies only to sports betting. The opinion illustrates how... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol. 6 (37) - Excessive Appetites: A Review

"Gamble, gamble, gamble your life away… you might as well have put the money down the drain… you've got to face the truth that you're having a love affair, and it's with a machine whose lights flash, takes your money and kills your soul." (A 'fruit machine addict' cited in Orford, 2001). Self-described as an "up-to-date and authoritative account of core knowledge in the [addictions] field," the second edition of Jim Orford's now classic Excessive Appetites: A Psychological View of Addictions, is laden with reports of the most recent explorations of several addictive disorders including drinking, gambling, drug taking, eating,... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol. 6 (36) - Warnings V. Winnings: Do Labels Change Gambling Patterns?

Although warning labels were initially met with much resistance by the alcohol and tobacco industries, research has found their influence to be dubious at best (e.g., MacKinnon, Nohre, Pentz, & Stacy, 2000; McGowan, 2001; Robinson & Killen, 1997). Like these businesses, the gambling industry has resisted the addition of warning labels on its venues (McGowan, 2001). However, what is the effect of warning labels on gaming? In the course of providing an interesting look at the role of the government in the evolution of the gambling industry in the United States, a newly published book by Richard McGowan, "Government and... Read more →