The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The Wager, Volume 8(5) - The Smoking Gun

Among substance abusers, smokers have more severe substance abuse symptoms and comorbid psychosocial problems than non-smokers (Roll, Higgins, Budney, Bickel, & Badger, 1996). In a recent study, Petry and Oncken (2002) examined whether a similar relationship exists for pathological gamblers. This week’s WAGER presents the results of their study. Petry and Oncken studied 345 consecutive admissions to a gambling treatment program study between August 1998 and July 2000. At intake to the treatment program, these subjects completed the Addictions Severity Index (McLellan, Luborsky, Cacciola, & Griffith, 1985), the South Oaks Gambling Screen (Lesieur & Blume, 1987), and 10-point Likert scale... Read more →

For past editorials, click here. The views expressed in this article are solely the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The WAGER, its sponsors, or affiliated organizations. Dealing With Card-Counters ©Copyright 2002, all rights reserved worldwide. Gambling and the Law® is a registered trademark of Professor I. Nelson Rose, Whittier Law School, Costa Mesa, CA. Casinos are the only businesses which make money by beating their own customers at games of chance. The operators of lotteries and parimutuel betting do not care who wins or loses. With casinos, however, the house cares very much... Read more →

The Wager, Volume 8(4) - The Hearty Gambler: How Gambling Affects Health

Like other addictive behaviors, gambling is often considered a precipitating factor in a variety of health problems. In an effort to gain a greater understanding of the effects of problem and pathological gambling on human physiology, Potenza, Fiellin, Heninger, Rounsaville, and Mazure (2002) conducted a literature review of a sample of existing studies that examined various aspects of gambling’s impact on the gamblers’ physical and mental health. This week’s WAGER presents the findings of this report. Using the MEDLINE search engine, Potenza et al. identified 227 peer-reviewed articles that discussed screening and treatment strategies for problem and pathological gambling. Of... Read more →

The Wager, Volume 8(3) - Double Trouble? When Two Risk Factors Combine

Evidence suggests that various groups (i.e., substance users, youth, criminals, psychiatric comorbidity) are at increased risk of developing gambling problems. Whether individuals belonging to multiple risk groups are even more susceptible to gambling problems is unknown. WAGER 7(1) tackled this question by examining a study of criminal youth that found they did not consistently exceed non-criminal youths in their gambling behaviors. This week, we return to the question of additive risk and discuss a study of problem gambling behavior in a cohort of adolescent substance abusers (Kaminer, Burlesibm, & Jadamec, 2002). Kaminer et al. recruited 97 youths (64 male) aged... Read more →

The Wager, Vol. 8 - Editorial, Letters

The views expressed in this article are solely the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The WAGER, its sponsors, or affiliated organizations. Table of Contents (click on the title to go to that page): * What the Gaming Industry can Learn from Yucca Mountain, by Marvin Karlins, Ph. D. * Editorial Response to Dr. Karlins by William Eadington, Ph.D. * Editorial Response to Dr. Karlins by Kevin Mullally. * Final editorial comments by Dr. Karlins. What the Gaming Industry can Learn from Yucca Mountain Marvin Karlins, Ph.D., Associate Editor, The Journal of Gambling Studies... Read more →

The Wager, Volume 8(2) - Psychological Profiling: Classification and the Problem Gambler

Blaszczynski and Nower (2002) argue that “the quest to impose one theoretical model to apply equally and validly to all pathological gamblers is a misguided venture.” The authors contend that placing problem gamblers in a treatment system that accommodates specific sub-groups based on biological, psychological, and ecological factors will ultimately yield more effective treatment. The framework developed by the authors (see Figure 1) identifies three sub-groups, or “pathways,” to describe problem gamblers: behaviorally conditioned problem gamblers, who repeatedly exhibit poor judgment by engaging in destructive gambling behaviors, but lack a specific psychiatric pathology (pathway 1); emotionally vulnerable problem gamblers, who... Read more →